Triple Trouble COMPLETE
by FullMoonDreams
Summary: Sirius, Remus and the rest of the marauders encounter more trouble from the parallel world they thought they'd never hear from again. Sequel to Double Trouble and Catch a Quaffle. Summaries inside. SBRL.
1. The Calm Before the Storm

Disclaimer: I don't own anything…duh.

Warning:** Slash** pairing of Remus and Sirius – if you don't like it, don't read it. Flames will be ignored. It probably won't be very graphic and if I change my mind I will up the rating and put a warning at the start of the chapter where I make the decision.

Author Notes: This story is the sequel to Double Trouble and Catch a Quaffle. You don't really need to have read Catch a Quaffle at all but reading Double Trouble is recommended. If you don't want to read either of those, or need a recap, here they are.

Double Trouble – A spell had unexpected results and brought four more marauders from a parallel world into the one in which the story is set.

The other James – Sweet (sickeningly so), dating Lily and best mates with Severus Snape (who was in Ravenclaw rather than Slytherin).

The other Peter – Popular playboy, star of the Quidditch team and the only one who couldn't easily pass for his double as he was in better shape.

The other Sirius – hard working and studious (an exaggeration of Remus but without Remus's sense of fun). Also gay.

The other Remus – not a werewolf, the living embodiment of all the worst qualities of Sirius and James (reckless, arrogant and cruel etc) but without their loyalty and understanding.

The marauders found that the duplicates were fun to have around at first, but later discovered that they were not all they were cracked up to be. They were sent back by Dumbledore shortly after they discovered that Remus was a werewolf. None of the duplicates were animagi (and they didn't learn that the regular ones were) and they didn't take the news of Remus's lycanthropy well at all.

The lasting results of the duplicates' visits were that Remus rediscovered his place within the marauders, he'd been feeling somewhat insecure, and that Remus and Sirius became a couple.

Catch a Quaffle – Merely the story of Remus and Sirius going public with their relationship.

* * *

**Triple Trouble**

"Moony?" Sirius whined as he approached Remus and Peter in the Gryffindor common room.

"No," Remus replied without looking up from the board game.

"You don't know what I'm going to ask yet," Sirius pointed out.

"Yes I do, and the answer's no."

"Don't you want me any more?" Sirius pouted and he gave an exaggerated sob.

"Nope, the novelty has worn off," Remus teased. "But that isn't what you wanted to ask, is it?"

"What makes you think that I didn't want to ask you up to the dorm so that I can make mad passionate love to you?"

Peter looked at Remus with a raise of his eyebrow and a smirk as he picked up a card from the centre of the board. "Go to Azkaban, go directly to Azkaban, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred galleons."

"Hard luck," Remus commiserated as Peter's cauldron piece was suddenly surrounded by mini-dementors who escorted it to the jail square. He then turned to Sirius and smiled. "You don't want me to go up to the dorm with you unless it's to provide you with the map, and you know it."

"You don't know that."

"Yes I do. You're in mischief mode, I can recognise it a mile away."

"But I want to go into Hogsmeade," Sirius whined. "James has gone under his invisibility cloak and I'll get caught without the map."

"James has gone into Hogsmeade?" Peter asked as Remus took his turn and announced that he was purchasing Hogsmeade Station.

"He's spying on Lily because she's on a date with whatshisface from Hufflepuff."

"Sabotaging the date is more like it," Remus muttered. "And if any of us are caught in Hogsmeade this year we'll be in serious trouble. I'm not going to give you the map so quit whining about it."

Sirius knew it was pointless to argue and since they were still working their way through more than enough detentions he decided not to press the issue. He knew that Remus was probably right. They'd all been banned from Hogsmeade visits for the remainder of the year, and with so many teachers in the village on the official Hogsmeade weekends there was a high chance of his being caught.

Instead of asking again, Sirius climbed into the chair that Remus was sitting in and settled down so that he was pressed up against Remus's back, his arms wrapped around the other boy's waist and his chin on his shoulder. Several 'ahs' sounded throughout the room and Remus smiled to himself. He still found it a little difficult to believe just how easily the rest of the students had accepted the fact that he and Sirius were in a romantic relationship together. He suspected that it might have a lot to do with the fact that Sirius was one of the most popular students in the school, not to mention one of the stars of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Sirius didn't agree with his reasoning but Remus was too happy at their acceptance to worry about such a trivial matter.

"What're you guys playing anyway?" Sirius asked as he looked at the board.

"Wizarding Monopoly," Remus explained. "You want to join in?"

"Aren't you in the middle of a game?"

"We've only just started," Peter said. "We're only on the second circuit of the board. There's lots of property still to buy. You ever played before?"

Sirius shook his head and Remus and Peter proceeded to tell him the objectives of game. "So you want to join in?"

"Okay," Sirius agreed. "Where are the pieces?"

Remus picked up the bag with the remaining pieces and noted that there were some missing. "You can choose from the spell book, the broomstick or the potions vial."

"What piece have you got?"

"I'm the centaur and Peter's the cauldron."

"The ones that are left are all boring, I'd rather be the centaur."

"I'm the centaur. Why don't you be the broomstick, seeing as how you're on the Quidditch team?" Remus picked up the broomstick and placed it on the board where it hovered ready to begin.

"Can't I be the centaur?" Sirius asked in a voice that could only be described as pure whining. Remus wondered whether it might have been less trouble just to give him the map.

"There's nothing wrong with the broomstick," Remus muttered impatiently.

"But I'd rather be the centaur than an inanimate object," Sirius complained as the centaur paced back and forth on its square. "Please?"

Remus drew in a sharp breath as Sirius inched even closer and pressed himself intimately against Remus's back. The touch of Sirius's lips against the sensitive spot just behind his ear was enough to persuade Remus to give up his favourite playing piece and let Sirius have his own way.

"Thanks Moony," Sirius gushed as Remus replaced his own piece with the spell book and Sirius moved the centaur back to the start square. Peter meanwhile counted out Sirius's starting money and Sirius took his first turn.

"King's Cross Station," he announced as the centaur came to a halt. "I'll buy it."

"I already have it," Remus said. "Which means you have to pay me rent of fifty galleons."

"Pocket change," Sirius grinned as he handed over the play money.

"You do know you can't replenish your money in the game with real money?" Peter asked, immediately laughing at Sirius's crestfallen expression.

Remus took the money from Sirius and placed it with the rest of his cash. From the corner of his eye he saw an arm reaching out for the cards of the four properties that he already owned. "I can see you, you know," he warned Sirius. "I know which properties I have so you can't sneak any into your own pile."

"I wasn't going to take them," Sirius mumbled. "I just wanted to see what you'd got."

"Okay, I'll forgive you. Go ahead and look."

"Really?" Sirius asked in surprise as his hand hovered over the cards.

"This isn't like poker or something," Remus laughed. "If you'd been here when we started playing you'd know what I've got already."

"Oh yeah," Sirius looked slightly embarrassed by his ignorance and Remus squeezed his hand to encourage his easy smile to return. It reappeared as easily as it always did and Remus turned back to the board for Peter's turn.

Peter remained stuck in Azkaban, refusing to pay to get out, and Remus on taking his turn, was thrilled to land on the Ministry of Magic, which along with Hogwarts School formed the set of the two most expensive properties on the board.

"Does that mean you can build on that now?" Sirius asked.

"Not unless I buy Hogwarts as well," Remus replied. "You can only build if you own a full set. I can't believe you've never played this game before."

Sirius scowled. "My family aren't exactly big on games and things like that. That would require them actually getting along for more than a few minutes at a time."

Remus could feel the tension in Sirius as he passed the dice to the other boy. He leaned back into him and rested a hand on his leg, rubbing his knee gently until he felt the tension drain out of him.

"Stuff your family," Peter said as Sirius rolled the dice. "You've got us now. We're your family."

"Too right, mate," Sirius declared as he rolled the dice and watched the centaur walk through the Azkaban jail square and settle on Diagon Alley. "Can I buy that one?"

"Yes," Remus replied after checking it was still available. He turned round to pass Sirius the card.

"Does that mean I get all the money from Gringotts?" Sirius suggested with a wide grin.

"Not even if you land on Gringotts itself," Remus laughed as he pointed to another square.

The three boys passed the rest of the afternoon playing the game and soon it became apparent that Sirius's lack of experience with the game was easily countered by his wonderful good luck. By the time they were on the tenth circuit of the board both Remus and Peter had been sent to Azkaban twice whilst Sirius had remained free to sweep around the board, mainly landing on previously unowned property. When Remus and Peter landed on the chance cards it was hit and miss as to whether it was a good or bad result. Remus was assessed for street repairs almost immediately after he'd placed a hotel on Knockturn Alley. Sirius had told him it was his own fault since no one with sense would want to stay in Knockturn Alley anyway. Peter meanwhile nearly went bankrupt with the cost of paying for all the players to go to the Quidditch World Cup.

Sirius on the other hand won second prize for the most dashing wizard (he was thrilled to get this card and stated loudly that he was happy to come second as he was sure Remus must have come first). Sirius also acquired both of the get out of Azkaban free cards, much to the disappointment of Peter and Remus who were the ones who seemed to need them.

"Won't you sell me the Ministry of Magic?" Sirius begged. "You can't build on it without Hogwarts anyway."

"Which you have," Remus snorted. Sirius had landed on Hogwarts School on his second circuit of the board and had been regularly begging Remus to sell him the Ministry of Magic ever since.

"Pay St Mungo's fees of forty galleons," Peter sighed. "I'm nearly broke already."

"You'll have to mortgage something," Remus suggested.

It wasn't long before Peter was completely bankrupt and Remus wasn't that far behind.

Sirius fell backwards into the chair, pulling Remus along with him, as he crowed his victory. He flung the fake money into the air and began humming a tuneless rendition of a song Remus couldn't quite place.

"You've been listening to muggle songs again, haven't you?" Peter asked with a grin.

"It annoys my mother even more than the motorbike I told her I was building in Muggle Studies," Sirius replied with a smirk before launching into a rousing rendition of _Money, Money Money_ and proving just how frequently he'd heard the song.

"I thought you were living permanently with James now?" Remus asked once Sirius had finished singing.

"I am. But the muggle songs is kind of a habit now."

"Any chance you could break it?" Peter asked. "Or at least take some singing lessons?"

"Git!" Sirius retorted as he threw a cushion at Peter and sent the board game toppling to the floor.

"I wonder where James has got to," Remus wondered as he twisted round in Sirius's arms and swung his legs over the side of the seat so that he was effectively sitting in Sirius's lap. "It's getting dark and most of the others are already back."

"I don't see Lily," Sirius answered as he pulled Remus closer and hugged him. "He won't come back until she does."

Almost as if she had been summoned by his words, the portrait hole swung open to reveal Lily Evans herself. Her friends looked up eagerly and Remus could tell that they were waiting to hear how her date had gone. From the look on her face, he guessed not that well. He looked past her towards the common room entrance, expecting to see James reappearing any moment. Unfortunately not only was there no sign of James, Lily was making a beeline for them and she had an unreadable expression on her face.

"Professor Dumbledore needs to see you both, right away," Lily said without preamble. "You'd better come too Peter." She turned to leave, clearly expecting them to follow without argument. Sirius groaned loudly as Remus left his arms and dragged him to his feet.

"What's this all about?" Remus asked as they followed Lily back out of the common room.

"I don't know," Lily replied.

"Did James get caught in Hogsmeade or something?" Peter asked.

"Unfortunately not," Lily muttered.

"Then what are we being called to Dumbledore for?" Sirius pressed, but Lily simply repeated that she had no idea.

They arrived at Dumbledore's office at the same time as Professor McGonagall, whom it appeared had also been summoned.

Professor McGonagall knocked smartly on the door and waited for permission to enter. The familiar voice sounded a moment later and Remus and the others stepped into the room to see why they'd been called.

"Ah Minerva, there you are. And the boys too. Thank you Miss Evans." Dumbledore waved them all into the room and to the seats in front of his desk. Remus could see that James was already there, looking as bemused as he was.

"You're probably all wondering why you've been summoned here," Dumbledore began as he strode to his own seat. Remus nodded politely, as did Lily.

"Well I won't keep you in suspense any longer." Dumbledore smiled around the room and a moment later a familiar watery substance appeared to the side of his desk. "You recognise this of course," he continued. "We'll be having a few visitors joining us momentarily."

"Visitors?" McGonagall asked, her tone betraying nothing of her personal feelings at the news.

"Remus, Sirius and Lily, from the other world, will be joining us for reasons I'll explain once they are here," Dumbledore stated calmly. "They'll be living here in our world and joining our students for their lessons for the foreseeable future."

"No!" Sirius exclaimed, much to the astonishment of the rest of the room.

"Mr Black, control yourself," McGonagall ordered.

"But they hate Moony, at least Remus and Sirius do," he muttered. "They found out about him…about him being a werewolf."

"I have spoken with my own counterpart," Dumbledore interrupted with a raised hand. "I can assure you that our Remus will be in no danger from our guests."

The watery window between the two worlds expanded and cleared and Remus felt his stomach turn over when he saw his double standing sullenly on the other side of the barrier. Even Sirius's fingers finding and squeezing his own in silent reassurance couldn't quell the uneasiness he felt as Dumbledore's double waved their guests through the barrier and into their lives again.

* * *

Author notes: I hope you enjoyed part one of this fic. The idea of wizarding monopoly was something I intended to write as a one shot last Christmas but never got around to. It was an idea that simply sprang to mind as the argument of who gets the dog playing piece in the standard game erupted for the six billionth time. Seriously, couldn't you just see Remus picking the dog because of Sirius's animagus form and Sirius wanting the piece himself? Okay maybe it's just me. ;-)

Anyway, the one shot idea was quite easy to work around to become the first part of this story.


	2. Adjustments and Sleeping Arrangements

Chapter 2

Sirius glared at his double as he stepped into the room. He still hadn't forgotten his reaction when he'd discovered Remus's furry little problem. All the marauders had been heartily glad to see the back of their doubles and had had no intention of opening the doorway between the two worlds again. That Dumbledore had been in touch with the other world was something they'd never even considered.

Sirius noticed that both his own double and Remus's were determined to keep their distance from Remus and he felt an overwhelming burst of protection towards his friend.

"Sirius, you're cutting off the circulation in my fingers," Remus whispered, forcing Sirius to loosen his grip on his hand.

The doubles stood waiting patiently whilst their own headmaster carefully levitated their trunks through the portal as well.

"I'll be in touch again in one week's time," Dumbledore's double stated and the doorway vanished once more.

Dumbledore turned to face the rest of the room and gestured towards the seats. The three doubles calmly sat down, Lily taking the seat closest to the Marauders.

"As you may already know," Dumbledore began. "Our world is not the only one which is battling a dark wizard. The world on the other side of that doorway has similar dangers and problems to our own. They are, unfortunately, losing their own war against the wizard who is seeking to rule their world."

"He-who-must-not-be-named has won already," the Lily from the other world stated coldly.

"Not quite," Dumbledore amended. "But things are very touch and go at the moment." His gaze swept the room and he appeared to be either gathering his thoughts or debating just how much to tell the students. Finally he seemed to make a choice. "I understand from my own counterpart that his own Hogwarts is in grave danger and many students have been removed from the school already. For various reasons these three students who are joining us are both in grave danger and unable to return to their homes at the present time. Time was of the utmost importance and I could do no more than offer the hospitality of our own school for the present time."

Professor McGonagall nodded approvingly but Sirius couldn't help but wonder at the sense of opening up their doors to all kinds of trouble.

"Of course we must help to defeat He-who-must-not-be-named," offered Lily. She stood up and turned to her own double and quickly enveloped her in a hug. "Welcome to our Hogwarts!"

"That's the spirit Miss Evans," Dumbledore commented with a smile at the prefect. "The other Lily will be joining you in the sixth year Gryffindor dorms and I know I can trust you to make her feel welcome."

"I prefer Lillian actually," the other Lily said with an apologetic smile.

"Really?" Lily asked. "You're not named after a flower like me and my sister?"

"I'm an only child," Lillian stated. "I was named after my grandmother."

Lily frowned and Sirius suspected that Lily hadn't had a grandmother named Lillian at all. He wondered whether Lily and Lillian were as different as he and his own counterpart were.

"The boys will also be joining you four troublemakers," Dumbledore smiled at the marauders, "for lessons and, I suspect, pranks."

McGonagall sighed audibly and glared at all six boys as though daring them to try her patience. Sirius grinned back until Remus caught him between the ribs with his elbow. "We'll behave Professor," he offered.

"Speak for yourself," Sirius whispered.

"I'll be keeping a _very _close eye on them all," McGonagall promised, clearly having heard Sirius's words.

* * *

"I trust there'll be no more fighting between you boys?" McGonagall questioned in a tone that made it clear that there was only one answer she would accept.

The six boys shrugged, nodded and mumbled their agreement as Professor McGonagall summoned two more beds into the boys' dormitory.

"I suggest you spend the rest of the weekend sorting out your differences or you will all find the next few weeks very difficult."

"Weeks?" James asked. "I thought they were only here for one week."

"They will be staying here indefinitely," McGonagall stated firmly. "You will do your best to make them feel welcome and you two," she turned her glare on the two visiting boys, "will not breathe a word about Remus's lycanthropy."

"We've already been told not to say anything," the visiting Sirius confirmed.

"See that you don't."

"We'll see that they don't!" James snapped.

McGonagall sighed with impatience. "At least try to get along," she advised as she swept out of the door.

Sirius watched as the other Remus dragged his trunk to the foot of one of the new beds. The other Sirius stood dithering near the doorway, a look on his face that seemed to say that he was considering bolting at the first opportunity.

"You'd better sleep with one eye open, werewolf!" the other Remus sneered.

Sirius and James had their wands out in defence of their friend instantly. "I think we need new sleeping arrangements," Sirius stated calmly. "Moony, you stay in your own bed. James, you take the new bed by the door, the one next to Moony. Peter you move into James's bed on the other side of Moony. You two…" he turned to the newcomers. "You two can sleep in Prongs's and my beds on the other side of the room."

Sirius pointed his wand at his own belongings and levitated them across the room so that his counterpart could put his personal items in their place.

"Prongs…" the other Remus hissed with a sneer. "So are you going to tell us where that name originates from? And the others? Wormtail and Padfoot, right?"

Sirius felt his stomach turn over as he remembered that their duplicates had no idea that three of the boys in the room were illegal animagi. They had their suspicions about the origin of the nicknames…they at least knew that they were connected to some mischief or other that they had yet to be caught in…but they didn't know the full extent of the rule-breaking. They had no idea that they were law-breakers.

Sirius was about to open his mouth to speak when his own voice came from the doorway, surprising in its intensity. "Why don't you just shut it Remus?" the other Sirius snapped at Moony's double.

Sirius felt his jaw drop and could do nothing to stop it. He looked at his other self and saw something in his eyes that looked as though it might have been an apology. Sirius remembered the look in Moony's eyes after their duplicates had turned on him and knew that it wasn't enough to excuse their behaviour.

"Come on Moony," Sirius said as he took the other boy's hand. "It's nearly time for dinner."

He shot a final glare at the other Remus before he left the room. The pleasant afternoon was all but forgotten with the arrival of the unwanted guests.

* * *

The Great Hall was already buzzing with the news of the new students. Lily and Lillian were already there and the rest of the school were casting curious glances in their direction.

Sirius sat down on the bench opposite the girls and pulled Remus down to sit with him.

"Can I have my hand back?" Remus asked with a grin.

"I don't know," Sirius smiled back at him. "I kind of like it where it is." He picked up the hand in question and pressed a kiss into the palm.

The sound of ahs and oohs echoed around the hall and Sirius smiled as Remus blushed under the attention. He turned to grin at anyone whose gaze was lingering on them but instinctively recoiled when he saw the hostility on the face of the red-haired Lillian.

"You have _that sort _in this world as well?" she sneered.

"Got a problem with our favourite boys?" Charlene 'Charlie' Grahams, the Gryffindor Quidditch captain asked as she slid onto the bench next to Sirius and pulled out a sheet of parchment with various tactics and formations scrawled over it. Sirius grinned at his team mate and nodded his silent thanks for her support.

"I can't imagine the teachers would approve of that sort of carrying on," Lillian stated with a glance at the staff table. "Not if they knew about it."

Charlie laughed out loud at that. "Oh the teachers _do_ know about it," she declared loudly. "Sirius made sure of that at the last Quidditch match when he decided to snog the face off his boyfriend instead of playing the game."

"Ah, you didn't mind," Sirius grinned at her and pulled her close for a hug. "You think we're the cutest couple in school, admit it."

"I only forgave you 'cos we won," Charlie warned. "You'd better not pull the same stunt again, or I really will kick you off the team."

"I hope you'll consider me for a replacement if you do," the other Remus suggested as he sat down on Charlie's other side. "I'm the best chaser on our team."

Charlie looked momentarily taken aback as she looked from one Remus to the other.

"It takes some getting used to," Moony commented.

"You stay out of this…freak!" Remus snapped.

"Don't listen to him," Sirius ordered as he pulled the other boy into a hug. "At the rate he's going he'll be lynched by the end of the week." He gestured silently around the room where numerous students who'd been blatantly eavesdropping, were now glaring daggers at the boy who'd dared to call their Remus a freak.

Moony smiled slightly but Sirius could tell that it didn't reach his eyes. He didn't need to say anything for Sirius to understand what he was thinking. _But the rest of the school don't know that I _am_ a freak._

"You're_ not_ a freak," Sirius whispered. Two identical snorts sounded from each of the Remuses. "Would you be dating the most popular and best looking, besides yourself of course, guy in the school if you were?"

Moony rolled his eyes. "How did you know about my secret affair with Malachi Philips?" he teased. Sirius breathed a sigh of relief. Moony couldn't be too upset if he was able to joke about things.

"You forget that I know everything," Sirius whispered into his ear. "Like I know exactly what you're thinking right now."

"Do you indeed?"

"Hmm."

"So where is it?"

"Right here," Sirius replied as he placed a bowl of Remus's favourite dessert in front of him.

"You know me so well." Remus laughed and kissed Sirius soundly on the lips.

"Eww," Lillian spluttered from across the table.

"They're only doing it to wind you up," Lily pointed out impatiently. "Ignore them and they'll stop slobbering over each other long enough to eat."

"Now, now Lily, don't go spoiling our fun like that," Sirius scolded.

The teasing banter, punctuated with frequent explanations for latecomers, continued throughout the meal, with only Lillian and the other Remus refusing to join in the fun or discussions.

Sirius did his best to ignore the duplicates but even he couldn't ignore Lillian when she suddenly leapt from her seat and launched herself at a group of Slytherins who were just entering the hall.

James and Peter were just behind them and from the looks on the faces of the two boys it was clear that they had something to do with the late arrival of the Slytherins.

All questions of what prank had been pulled flew from his mind as Lillian squealed and pulled Severus Snape into her arms.

"Sev, you're alive! I thought I'd never see you again!"

Sirius looked over at James who appeared as though he was about to vomit at the sight.

"Lily?" Severus queried. "I thought you weren't talking to me?"

"She shouldn't be talking to you," Mulciber, a particularly cruel Slytherin seventh year boy hissed. "Filthy little mudblood."

Lillian recoiled in shock at the words. "I'm not…I'm not…" she stammered before looking back to where Lily was sitting at the table.

Sirius watched the look of shock morph into one of distaste and disgust as she glared at Lily.

"I'm guessing Lillian isn't muggle-born," James asked as he sat down beside Lily.

"Apparently not," Lily whispered as Lillian stalked out of the room.

"Well that was weird," Peter commented as he grabbed a bread roll and began to butter it. "So do you want to know why the Slytherins were late?"

"Sure," Sirius replied. "What prank did you pull this time? And why wasn't I included in it?"

"All we did was brick up the corridor leading to the Slytherin quarters," James casually replied. "Just a modification of the wall that leads into Diagon Alley but without anyone on the other side knowing the sequence of bricks."

"Wish I'd seen it," Sirius sighed.

"You still can," James grinned. "The wall's still there. Just one of them got lucky enough to open it. There are still plenty trapped and the sequence to get back through in the other direction is different."

Sirius laughed momentarily until he realised that the other Remus was also chortling with suppressed laughter. When he noticed, he scowled at him and his initial mirth disappeared. He put his arm around Moony and hugged him close. The last thing he wanted was for his own Remus to think he was being replaced again.

"Where's the other Sirius?" Sirius suddenly asked when he realised that he hadn't seen him since he'd left the dormitory.

"Probably in the library," both Remuses replied in precise synchronisation.

Sirius shivered and wondered if he'd ever get used to the situation. He suspected not, and could only hope that it wouldn't be for long.

* * *

Moony strolled back into the dormitory with James, his bodyguard for the moment, trailing alongside him.

"Padfoot!" he called.

"What?" Sirius replied as he stood up from the other side of Moony's bed. "No need to shout, I'm right here."

"Why is all your crap on my bed?" Remus asked with a frown as he picked up Sirius's tie and outdoor robes and dumped them on the second of the empty beds that McGonagall had summoned earlier.

"Our bed," Sirius corrected with a grin.

"Excuse me?"

"James is near the door so that he can run for help if you get attacked. Peter is on your left and I'll get your back."

"Is that what you're calling it these days?" James asked with a smirk.

Remus turned his glare on Prongs. "James, get your mind out of the gutter for once." He turned back to Sirius with another frown. "This better not be an elaborate scheme to get me to have sex with you," he warned.

"It's not," Sirius promised as he sat down on the edge of the bed. "It's just that I don't trust our _guests_ and I…"

"What?"

"I just want to be with you."

"This isn't some 'canine, territory marking' thing is it?" James asked with another smirk.

"No," Sirius replied with a glare of his own. "This is a 'Sirius is scared he might wake up and find his boyfriend dead and so wants to sleep with him in his arms just in case' thing."

"I'm sure they won't try to kill me in the middle of the night," Remus said as he sat down beside Sirius and took one of his hands into his own.

"We don't know what they might do," Sirius replied. "I can't lose you."

"You're not going to." Remus pulled Sirius into a hug and Sirius hoped that the other boy couldn't feel him shaking in fear.

"I love you Moony," he whispered. "Please let me hold you."

"You are holding me," Remus whispered back.

"You know what I mean."

"You're really worried aren't you?"

"Call it my canine instincts kicking in," Sirius joked weakly. "Please let me share your bed."

"Of course you can," Remus replied. "It wouldn't be the first time anyway."

"It wouldn't?" James asked in surprise.

"Could you _please_ get your one-track mind out of the gutter?" asked an exasperated Remus. "Sirius has shared my bed three other times since we've been here."

"I have?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "Once in first year when James had spilt pumpkin juice all over your bed."

"Oh yeah, forgot about that," James commented with a grin and a wicked look at the beds that the doubles would be using.

"Don't even think about it!" Sirius warned. "The sleeping arrangements are all sorted out and you're not going to be mucking them up with some lame prank. When were the other two times?"

"Once in second year after you all found out about me. I was worried you'd not want to share a dorm with me and you proved you didn't mind by climbing into bed with me."

Sirius smiled as he recalled the memory. "And the third time?"

"When you got drunk after the OWLs last year."

"I seem to recall you were somewhat under the influence of alcohol as well," Sirius pointed out.

"At least I managed to find my own bed. You stumbled in from the bathroom and collapsed on mine, trapping me in it."

"I don't remember that," James mused from across the room.

"Probably because you fell asleep at the foot of the staircase to the girls' dorms after trying to serenade Lily," Remus commented.

"I didn't! Did I?"

"Why don't you ask her if you don't believe me?" Remus asked. "Or any of the girls, or McGonagall…she heard you too. She said she'd never heard any one murder Ain't No Mountain High Enough quite like you as you tried to climb up the slide."

"You're making this up." James was looking wary because although he was easily able to figure out when Sirius was lying and winding him up, he could never quite tell with Remus. "Aren't you? Sirius? He made that up, right?"

"You're asking me?" Sirius asked. "I don't remember anything after the fourth round of Firewhisky in The Hog's Head."

"You remember Moony being drunk," James insisted.

"I remember him having a hangover the next morning," Sirius corrected.

"That's a muggle song," James suddenly declared with triumph. "I wouldn't serenade someone with a muggle song."

"Unless it was Lily, and you wanted to show her that you didn't mind that she was muggle-born." Remus smirked.

"Oh Merlin, how can I ever face her again?" James collapsed onto his bed with a heartfelt sigh.

"It was last year and technically you've already faced her numerous times since that night."

"But I didn't _know _about it then."

"Guess you'll just have to live here in the dorm then," Remus suggested as he climbed into bed.

"You've just got no sympathy for me," James accused.

"None at all."

Sirius laughed as he crawled in beside Remus and pulled him into his arms.

"Curtains," James muttered loudly from his bed.

"What about 'em?" Sirius asked as he snuggled closer to Remus.

"Aren't you going to shut them?"

"No," Sirius replied. "I want to be able to see either of those two gits if they attack."

"But I'd rather not wake up in the middle of the night to see you two going at it."

"I'd love to know where you got the impression that I'm that easy," Remus commented with a loud yawn.

"You're the one who said that Sirius was _persuasive_."

Sirius chuckled quietly. "Maybe we should just go ahead and give the others a show just to keep them quiet?"

"I could always change my mind and kick you out the bed," Remus warned.

"Being quiet now," Sirius promised.

Sirius stayed quiet and still as the rest of the boys returned to the dorm and settled down for the night. An assortment of snores soon filled the room but he could tell that Moony was still awake.

"Thanks for letting me sleep with you," he whispered quietly. "I'll keep you safe, I promise."

"I know you will, Padfoot," Remus replied in a soft voice.

"I really do love you Remus."

"I know you do."

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Well aren't you going to tell me that you love me too?"

"The muffliato spell is quite an easy one to do," Peter commented from his own bed.

"So's the stinging hex," Sirius warned with a glare over his shoulder. "Moony?"

"What?"

"Don't you love me?"

Remus turned in his arms and Sirius sighed as he felt Remus's lips press against his own.

"Shut the damn curtains!" James growled.

"You know," Sirius said loudly after Remus had pulled away. "If you two got yourselves a couple of girls you wouldn't need to get your jollies by watching us."

"Sod off Padfoot!" James and Peter snapped.

Sirius laughed as he pulled Remus close again.

Snores were emanating from Peter's bed and Sirius was drifting off to sleep himself when he heard Remus whisper "I love you too, Sirius."

Sirius smiled and sleep finally claimed him.


	3. The Third Date

A/N: Not sure whether I like this chapter or not. It seems a bit too predictable to me, not to mention overly corny - even for me. But I figure this update is better than nothing. Happy New Year everyone.

* * *

Chapter 3

During the course of the next couple of weeks Remus had come to realise two things.

The first was that the other Sirius was making a real effort to try to speak to him alone but was being thwarted at every turn by either the marauders or his own friends.

Remus's initial worries about that particular duplicate had long since calmed and he was becoming curious as to what it was that the other boy wanted to speak to him about.

Unfortunately they were never alone together for him to find out. Lillian shared the exact same classes as the other Sirius and when they weren't in class she and his own double were sticking to the other Sirius like glue. And even if they weren't, the marauders were shadowing Moony himself very closely.

Which brought him to the second realisation…having twenty four hour bodyguards in the form of his three best friends was all well and good, but it was starting to get rather irritating.

"Padfoot, wake up!" Remus muttered as he gave his boyfriend a sharp jab in the shoulder.

"Just five more minutes love," Sirius murmured sleepily.

Several students in the common room looked across at the exchange in amusement.

"Sirius, would you get off me," Remus asked in a slightly louder voice as he gave him another shove.

"Whassup!" Sirius sat up and looked around the room, apparently astonished at where he was.

"You fell asleep listening to James's latest Lily plotting," Peter explained. "Easy enough to do since it's getting kind of repetitive."

"But why did you wake me?" Sirius asked Remus in accusation. "I was having such a pleasant dream." He leaned back down to rest his head in Remus's lap again.

"Sirius, you're getting dumped on the floor if you don't move," Remus warned. At that, Sirius sat up again and tried to pull Remus towards him instead.

"Sirius would you please let me up off the sofa?" Remus pleaded.

"Why?"

"Why? Because I've got to go," Remus sighed.

"Go where?"

"To the bathroom."

"Oh, sorry. I didn't realise. Why didn't you just say so?"

"Because you kept asking for five more minutes," Remus pointed out with a long-suffering sigh. "Back in a minute."

"I'll come with you," Sirius said as he shot a look at the duplicates who were congregating in what had quickly become their private corner of the common room.

"I think I can find my way to the boys' bathroom and back without your assistance," Remus replied with a shake of his head.

"But what if they come after you and attack you?" Sirius asked in a harsh whisper as he nodded his head towards the duplicates.

"So follow them and make sure they don't," Remus muttered.

"Oh yeah! Good idea Moony."

Remus rolled his eyes as he stepped out of the portrait hole and made his way slowly down the corridor. No sense in not making the most of his brief period of freedom.

* * *

"You're annoying him by hovering so much," James commented as soon as the portrait hole had closed behind Remus.

"He knows it's for his own good," Sirius replied.

"You're still annoying him though. Maybe you should back off a bit."

"I agree with James," Peter added. "You don't want him to be avoiding you this evening and mucking up your Valentines Day plans."

"The plans are already in motion," Sirius declared. "All it needs is for me to get Remus to you-know-where this evening."

"My point exactly," Peter replied. "You won't be able to if he's too busy avoiding you."

"Maybe we should take a vote on it?" Sirius suggested. "All those in favour of my continuing to shadow Remus for his own safety please raise your hands."

Sirius raised his hand, as did a couple of eavesdropping, second year girls. "I make it three votes. So we outnumber you two."

"All those in favour of Sirius backing off for a bit as it's winding Remus up and he's risking mucking up his plans for their big date tonight, raise your hands," James called out. The hands of everyone else in the common room, except the doubles, shot into the air. "Looks like you're outvoted Padfoot," he grinned.

* * *

Sirius, with the help, or rather the pressure, of James and Peter managed to avoid driving Remus completely round the bend for the remainder of the day. Although Remus appeared somewhat reluctant to be dragged out of the common room shortly before dinner, the prodding of James, Peter and a fair number of other random Gryffindors persuaded him that it would be far less trouble to simply see what it was that Sirius had got planned.

"Okay, stand here," Sirius ordered as he began pacing outside the room of requirement. The door appeared, as prompted, and Sirius gave a small bow as he waved Remus into the room.

"Wow!" Remus gasped when he saw what the room had become.

"I thought since we can't go into Hogsmeade for the rest of the school year this was the next best thing. I'll take you out to a proper restaurant in the summer holidays." Sirius turned to close the door behind them and ushered Remus to the single table that was set up in the middle of the candlelit room.

"Is this a replica of a place you've been to?" Remus asked as he looked around the room.

"Not quite," Sirius explained as he pulled out the second chair at the table and sat down. "The furnishings are similar to a little place in London that my family goes to on special occasions. The Blacks may have their faults but you can't say they don't enjoy the best of everything. That restaurant is better lit though, and there isn't a sofa and fireplace in it." Sirius nodded to the comfy sofa that was positioned in front of a roaring fire.

"What's through that door?" Remus asked as he pointed to a door opposite the one that they'd entered the room through.

"At the moment, it's a shortcut to the kitchens." As he spoke the door swung open and three house elves marched into the room. The first two were carrying covered dishes that they placed before the two boys, the third was carrying a bottle of what looked like elf-made wine.

"You remembered that the room won't provide food," Remus commented with a grin.

"Are you impressed?"

"That you remembered or with the whole set up?"

"Both?"

"Not really and very."

Remus sat back so that the house elf nearest him could remove the cover from the plate in front of him. When he saw what was revealed he let loose a low whistle of appreciation.

"How in the world did you persuade them to cook this?" he asked in astonishment.

"I didn't," Sirius admitted. "The school governors are here to see Dumbledore today and this is what they were preparing for them. I just bribed the elves with butterbeer to provide us with this fine meal."

"I thought your stash of butterbeer ran out over Christmas?"

"It did. I nicked a few bottles from James's stash under the loose board under his bed."

"Does he know?"

"Course not. And don't you tell him either."

"My lips are sealed," Remus promised.

* * *

"That was delicious," Remus commented after they'd finished dessert.

"The house elves have done themselves proud," Sirius agreed as he poured them each a glass of wine and gestured towards the sofa. Remus nodded, picked up his glass and walked across the room, Sirius joining him a moment later.

"So, Remus, have you heard about the third date rule?" Sirius asked casually.

"Sure," Remus replied as he took a sip of wine. "Why do you ask?"

"Well I thought I'd bring it up since this is our third date," Sirius replied.

"No it's not," Remus pointed out with a frown. "This is our first date."

"Third," Sirius insisted with a grin.

"And when were the other two exactly?" Remus asked.

"You came to watch my Quidditch practice," Sirius stated as he held up one finger in illustration.

"That wasn't a date," Remus argued with a laugh.

"I checked with Chloe and Jessie, they're dating a couple of the guys on the team, and they said that coming to watch practice _does_ count as a date."

"It does not!"

"Does too!"

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head in defeat. "And do you want to tell me when our second date was? Since I seem to have missed that one too."

"Last Tuesday," Sirius smiled. "A romantic walk in the Forbidden Forest in the moonlight."

"Tuesday?" Remus echoed as he cast his mind back to the day in question. "That was a _detention_ you idiot! You can't count that as a date."

"Why not?" Sirius asked innocently.

"Because…because…" Remus looked Sirius and his shoulders started shaking with laughter.

"So you admit this is our third date?" Sirius prompted.

"You do realise that by your definition of a date James has been on about five dates with Lily and both you and he have been dating each other and Snape and Peter and goodness knows who else since first year?"

"Doesn't count." Sirius shook his head vehemently. "So since we're in agreement that this is our _third_ date, back to my original point…the third date rule."

"I don't follow that rule," Remus announced as he put his glass down on the coffee table. "I'm a werewolf. It makes it complicated."

"Complicated?" Sirius asked with obvious confusion. "I know you're a werewolf. You know I don't have a problem with it…or with your scars."

"It's not just that," Remus whispered quietly as he looked into the fire, casting a surreptitious glance at Sirius from the corner of his eye.

"What else is there?" Sirius asked as he edged closer and took one of Remus's hands in his own.

"I'm sorry Sirius, I thought you knew."

"Knew what?"

"I mean, you did all that research back in second year when you guys found out about me. I just assumed you knew."

"Knew what?" Sirius repeated, his voice rising slightly at Remus's apologetic and miserable tone.

"About the wolf," Remus whispered. "I'm part wolf, and wolves mate for life."

"They do?"

"Yeah. There are quite a few animals that do actually, wolves are just one of them. And I'm a werewolf so that's where it gets kind of complicated when it comes to sex."

"Remus," Sirius whispered as he turned the other boy's face towards him. "This is forever. I promise."

"It's been all of three weeks," Remus pointed out. "Your record for a relationship is what? A month?"

"This is different."

"Of course it's different," Remus replied with a laugh. "We're two blokes. But my point is, because of the wolf I have to be really sure about it before I have sex with you."

"I'll wait," Sirius assured him quietly. "However long it takes."

"Well I won't make you wait forever," Remus promised with a small smile. "I think that if this time next year we're still together then…"

"A year?" Sirius spluttered.

"I have to be sure," Remus repeated.

"But a year?"

"I'll understand if you don't want to wait that long," Remus commented with a sad smile.

"You're joking right?"

Remus's smile stretched into a grin.

"You_ are_ joking," Sirius accused with a sigh of relief, quickly followed by an accusing frown. "That was mean."

"You've got to admit, I had you going there," Remus gloated.

"It's not fair to use your furry little problem to wind me up like that," Sirius sulked. "Now about the third date rule…"

"I'm not having sex with you tonight," Remus interrupted.

"Why not?" Sirius asked, genuinely curious. "It's not like we've not done pretty much everything else that leads up to it."

"I'm waiting for something," Remus replied with a sigh.

"For what?"

"An order I placed with that adult shop your harridan of a Quidditch captain told us about."

"What?" Sirius's jaw dropped. "But I threw the order form into the fire."

"And I got a new one from her after the match. I placed an order the very next day. Delivery is three to four weeks though. The parcel should arrive any time after next weekend."

"What did you order?" Sirius asked with a grin.

"You'll see when it arrives."

"Oh, tell me now."

"It's just some stuff to make things a bit easier for us," Remus muttered and he could feel a flush of embarrassment rising on his face. "It's not like either of us have any experience with this…er…well anyway, you'll see when the parcel arrives. Or probably later on that day since I don't fancy opening it at the breakfast table."

"So, just to clarify, you do plan on having sex with me before your birthday next month?"

"I imagine so," Remus replied with a laugh. "Though I don't see what my birthday has to do with anything."

"Well, you'll be coming of age on this birthday," Sirius pointed out.

"So?"

"So?" Sirius parroted. "So it's one thing being a virgin when you're still legally a minor. But to be one when you come of age is a whole different thing."

"Erm…"

"I just thought of you waking up on your birthday, realising that you were an adult and that you were still a virgin."

"Um…"

"If that was me I'd be really depressed."

"I'm not…"

"Of course you're not," Sirius assured him. "It's not your birthday yet, but on the morning itself it'd hit you, and it's not like we'll be able to get away on your birthday to remedy the problem because Prongs is planning a surprise party for you…"

"He is?" Remus asked.

"Oops. Can you forget I said that and act all surprised when it happens?"

"Sure."

"Good, now what was I saying?"

"You were rambling…" Remus began.

"Oh yeah. Your virginity. No, let me finish," Sirius raised his hand as Remus opened his mouth to interrupt him again. "I've been practising this speech all week."

"Er, okay," Remus waved him on, as Sirius continued.

"I love you Remus, and I want you to know that I am truly honoured that I will be your first. I don't want you to be embarrassed about it, or to think that I'm going to compare you to anyone else. Not that there are any blokes on the list, and not really that many girls either…just a couple actually. No, three…yeah three girls. Anyway they didn't mean anything to me, not like you do. I promise I am going to do everything I can to make your first time as easy and enjoyable as possible." Sirius concluded his speech by pulling Remus towards him and planting a soft kiss on his lips.

"So what did you think of my speech?" Sirius asked with a shy smile. "I've made Prongs and Wormtail listen to it about a hundred times."

"You haven't?" Remus groaned as he shook his head.

"I wanted to make sure it sounded all right," Sirius explained. "Prongs gave me a few pointers to make sure I didn't come across as too condescending…I didn't, did I?"

"No, Sirius. The speech was fine."

"Just fine?"

"Quite sweet actually," Remus smiled. "There's just one little thing I'd like to mention."

"You don't want to know the names of all the girls do you?" Sirius asked. "Only one of them was after the night I first had firewhiskey and I can barely remember what she looked like, let alone her name."

"It was Marcia," Remus reminded him. "And no, that wasn't it. It's just that your kind offer to…er…relieve me of my virginity before I come of age is a little on the late side."

"Huh?"

"I'm not a virgin," Remus clarified.

"You're not?"

"Sorry, no."

"But you have to be," Sirius argued.

"Why?"

"Well, because you're _you_. You're Remus Lupin. I've never seen you even _date_ a girl and you're not the type for one night stands. How can you not be a virgin? And why didn't I know about this? Why didn't any of us know?"

"You never asked," Remus replied simply.

"But your scars…"

"Toni already knew about them," Remus replied quietly.

"Tony?" Sirius asked in stunned surprise. "You've been with a bloke?"

"No." Remus rolled his eyes. "Toni with an I, short for Antoinette. She's a squib who lives in a nearby village. Her father works for the Ministry in the Control of Magical Creatures Department. He helped my dad install the cage in our basement after I got bitten. Their family all know about me. Have done for years."

"Toni…Toni…hey you wrote to me about her didn't you? You never mentioned you were dating her, or that you'd had sex with her."

"First of all I told you all about our dates," Remus pointed out. "We went to the British Museum, London Zoo and pretty much every wizarding tourist spot in a fifty mile radius of London. Our families were holidaying down there together."

"But you didn't say they were _dates_," Sirius replied. "You wrote pages and pages about the various exhibits and the animals at the zoo but nothing about the fact it was a date you were on! I thought you were with your families."

"We were, some of the time. We slipped off on our own every chance we could though."

"You didn't mention that!"

"Didn't I?" Remus asked innocently.

"You deliberately didn't mention it," Sirius accused.

"I thought you guys would tease me when you found out," Remus admitted. "It's not like any of you had been on a date by that point. As for the other…well apart from the teasing, I didn't want to put in a letter that we'd done it, as neither of our parents knew we'd gone that far. At least not until the end of the summer when Toni's father caught us and banned us from seeing each other again."

"He what?"

"Banned us from seeing each other," Remus repeated. "Apparently he doesn't mind helping out his neighbours with their werewolf problem, but he isn't so open-minded that he wants his daughter dating said werewolf."

"What a git!"

"Yeah. But it's probably for the best. Toni has enough problems with being a squib without being saddled with a werewolf as well. Besides, if her father hadn't split us up I'd probably still be with her now…instead of with you."

"How long were you seeing her for?" Sirius asked curiously.

"Well we first kissed during the Christmas holidays. We kept in touch by owl but didn't really get together properly until the summer holidays. Then we got split up at the end of them."

"Wait a minute," Sirius ordered and Remus could see him doing some mental arithmetic. "The letters about Toni were back in the summer between fourth and fifth year."

"Yeah."

"But that can't be right."

"What can't be right?"

"You can't have lost your virginity back then!"

"I think I can remember when it was," Remus laughed. "I _was_ there."

"But it was between fourth and fifth year!"

"And your point is?"

"That means you lost your virginity before I did," Sirius exclaimed. "Before any of us did. Peter lost his last summer, James is going to die a virgin since he's delusional enough to still be saving himself for Lily, and I didn't lose mine until Easter of fifth year. I thought I was first."

"I didn't realise it was a race," Remus grinned. "Don't feel bad Padfoot. I won't hold your lack of experience against you."

"I don't have a lack of experience," Sirius spluttered. "I've been with three girls compared to your one. It was just the one wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was just the one," Remus confirmed. "However if you're keeping score you have been with three different girls on one occasion each…"

"Twice with Sylvie," Sirius corrected.

"Fine, twice with Sylvie which gives you a total of four."

"And you and Toni?"

"More than four," Remus admitted with a smirk. "We stopped counting when we hit double digits."

"I can't believe you never told us," Sirius accused.

"We'd got caught a couple of days before school started," Remus explained. "At first I just didn't want to talk about it and then it just never came up. I'd have told you all if you'd asked but…well…you didn't."

"We sort of had an unspoken agreement between the rest of us not to embarrass you with stuff like that. You know, because of your scars. We never thought you'd already…" Sirius grinned suddenly. "I can't believe we missed the opportunity to tease you about this."

"Which brings us back to the main reason I didn't tell you," Remus snorted.

The two boys sat quietly for a while as they finished off the bottle of wine.

"Remus?" Sirius asked quietly as he set down his empty glass.

"Hmm?"

"This whole you not being a virgin isn't another wind up is it?"

Remus set down his empty glass beside Sirius's and turned to him with a frown. "Does it really bother you that I'm not?" he asked.

"No," Sirius replied after a moment of thought. "I guess I'm just surprised."

"You'll get over it," Remus teased. "And no, it's not a joke."

Remus leaned back on the sofa and curled up against Sirius. A few minutes of companionable silence passed before Sirius spoke again.

"Remus?"

"Yes Sirius?"

"You…erm…you won't compare me to Toni, will you?"

"No Sirius," Remus replied with a husky laugh. "Now let's just be quiet and enjoy the rest of the evening before curfew."

"Curfew was half an hour ago," Sirius pointed out.

"Was it?" Remus asked sleepily.

"We should be going back to the dorm."

"Hmm."

"You being a prefect and all. It sets a bad example being out late like this."

"Sirius?"

"What?"

"We already established back in first year that you're a bad influence on me. I don't see that our new relationship is going to change that."

"It_ is_ doubtful," Sirius agreed.

"So since it's already passed curfew, and since we _are_ quite comfortable here…"

"You want to stay here all night?" Sirius asked quietly.

"This sofa _is_ comfy."

"The passage to the kitchen is closed now," Sirius whispered. "There's a room there now, with an even more comfortable bed in it."

"How do you know that?"

"You don't believe me?"

Remus opened his eyes and looked up at Sirius through his lashes.

"Seems a shame not to use it," Sirius continued mournfully.

"I suppose we could test it out," Remus agreed with a grin.

"That way when we come back here again we'll know what needs changing for next time," Sirius added.

"Just doing our research." Remus nodded.

"So that everything will be perfect." Sirius stood up and pulled Remus to his feet beside him.

"It already is Padfoot," Remus replied. "It already is."


	4. Beneath the Surface

Chapter 4

"Prongs, can I borrow your invisibility cloak?" Remus asked after he'd finally tracked the other boy down in the dormitory the following morning.

"How was last night?" James replied with a grin.

"Fine. Can I borrow your cloak?"

"Just fine?" James questioned with another grin. "Sirius must be slipping."

"It was great. So can I borrow it?"

"So your first time wasn't too difficult?" James asked, making no move whatsoever to go fetch his cloak. "Sirius didn't…you know…mess things up?"

Remus drew in a deep breath and prayed for patience.

"Oh I'm sorry Moony," James continued when Remus didn't answer. "I'm sure it'll be better next time. I mean, in a way this is a new area for him too. I know he's been really nervous all week."

"James?"

"Yeah?"

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose as he looked at his friend and tried to dredge up some remnants of patience. "I have to say, I never realised until last night just how fascinating you all found my _apparent_ lack of a love life to be."

"Erm…"

"You'll have noticed the emphasis on the word apparent there?" Remus asked as James frowned back at him in confusion.

"But Sirius said…we thought…you…er…"

"Clearly it's too early in the morning for you to be forming coherent sentences," Remus consoled.

"Er…so you and Sirius…you…er…did you…?"

"No we didn't," Remus interrupted before this conversation dragged on even longer and he lost the last shred of sanity he was clinging to. "We're waiting a little longer and it's not for the reasons you're even now scrambling to give voice to."

"That's right," Sirius chimed in as he came into the dormitory behind Remus. "Our Moony's been holding out on us."

Remus groaned as James looked at his best friend for an explanation.

"Seems that you've been coming to the wrong marauder for advice on winning over Lily," Sirius added as grabbed hold of Remus and pulled him down to sit on the end of their bed.

"Oh?" James asked.

Remus could feel his face flushing and he braced himself for the teasing he knew was going to come any minute.

"That's right," Sirius chuckled as he wound an arm around Remus's waist and rested his chin on his shoulder. "It seems that our Remus has actually beaten a few of the records I thought me and Peter held."

"He has?"

"Yep," Sirius smirked. "Let me see. The longest relationship record which was held by me until Peter's holiday romance in the summer should in fact be held by Remus who was secretly dating a girl named Toni from December in fourth year until just before the start of fifth year…"

"Technically, we only got together at the start of the summer holidays," Remus corrected.

"Details, details," Sirius muttered as James's lower jaw dropped slightly at the news. "Secondly the first kiss record which I had for Valentine's Day in fourth year should be Moony's since he'd already snogged Toni by that point. He also lost his virginity with her during that summer, before any of the rest of us, and apparently has more experience in that department than the rest of us combined."

By this point James's jaw was practically on the floor and Remus was praying that the said floor would open up and swallow him.

"It's always the quiet ones," James finally muttered with a grin.

"Sirius!" Remus hissed as he turned to the boy sitting beside him with a scowl.

"Oh come on Moony," Sirius whined. "You knew I was going to tell Prongs and Wormtail."

"This is so embarrassing," Remus muttered as he buried his head in Sirius's chest in an uncharacteristic display of over the top dramatics. He wondered briefly if Sirius was having more of an influence on him than he'd realised.

"Only Remus would be embarrassed about something the rest of us would be bragging about," James laughed.

"I still can't believe we didn't realise," Sirius said as he idly stroked Remus's back.

"It should have been obvious," James agreed. "All that stuff he said you two had been up to last month. After you admitted it wasn't true I thought you'd prompted him with some ideas. But it was all Moony wasn't it?"

Sirius nodded in confirmation and Remus risked a glance upwards and saw that he was grinning. "And who is it the debonair and dashing Sirius Black goes to for dating advice?" Remus snorted at the 'debonair and dashing' comment.

"Moony?" James guessed.

"Always," Sirius nodded. "You're no help, and Remus always knows about this sort of stuff."

"We just never actually thought about _how_ he knew it," James laughed. "So, Remus, about Lily…"

Remus rolled his eyes. "I'll make you a deal," he offered. "You lend me your cloak, no questions asked, and I'll put in a good word for you with Lily when we're at our prefects' meeting this evening."

"Deal!" James exclaimed.

"What do you want the cloak for?" Sirius asked suspiciously.

"No questions asked," Remus reminded him.

"James might have agreed to that, but I didn't."

"I'll make it worth your while," Remus murmured as he toppled Sirius back onto the bed and slipped his hand inside his robes.

"You'll explain later?" Sirius asked just before Remus pressed their lips together.

"Um…guys?" James asked with an exaggerated cough.

Remus jumped up from the bed and swung James's cloak over his shoulders. "Thanks Prongs," he called as he walked towards the door.

* * *

"Wonder what he wants the cloak for?" James mused as Sirius sat up, straightened his robes and tried to get his breath back.

"One way to find out," Sirius grinned. "We'll just use the map to follow him."

"Good idea," James agreed. "What have you done with it? You had it last evening to make sure the coast was clear if you weren't back from your date by curfew."

"It's right here," Sirius said as he reached into his robes. "Er…it was right here…" He tried the other inner pocket. "It's…it was right here." He checked all his pockets again frantically. "I did have it. The devious little git!"

"He swiped it from you?" James guessed.

"I didn't even notice," Sirius muttered. "Merlin, that boy can kiss!"

"We'll have to hope he explains later," James sighed.

"I'm sure he will," Sirius replied. "He agreed to. Didn't he?"

"No Padfoot," James sighed again. "You asked him to explain later and he shoved his tongue down your throat instead."

"Damn!"

* * *

Remus waited until he was in one of the deserted classrooms before he activated the map. He scanned the parchment for the name he was looking for, counting himself lucky that he'd felt the telltale sign of the worn parchment in Sirius's robes when he'd been snuggling into his chest.

"Sirius Black, where are you?" Remus muttered, easily spotting the one he'd just left heading down to the common room with James. The other was not so easy to track down. He'd looked first at the library section of the map but was disappointed to find that he wasn't there.

He saw that Lillian was with Severus Snape in an empty room near the Slytherin quarters and wondered what they were meeting about. If he didn't find the other Sirius on the map soon he might go down and see for himself. He wondered if the paranoia of the rest of the marauders was starting to rub off on him too. He was starting to see conspiracies everywhere too.

He scanned the map from the top of Gryffindor Tower downwards until he finally saw the name he was looking for. After double-checking that Padfoot was still with James, Remus left the classroom under the cover of invisibility and hurried to the lake where the other Sirius and the other Remus were loitering.

"Mischief managed," Remus whispered. The parchment was blank once more and Remus slipped it into his pocket. The two boys were sitting near the lake and there were no other students around.

Remus tried to move as quietly as possible as he approached them. He wished, not for the first time, that a stealthy, wolf-like ability had been something he'd got when he'd been bitten. 'Fat chance' he'd said when James had asked him about that very thing back in second year. Lots of pain, lots of scars and nothing even remotely cool like having werewolf superpowers. Sirius had sometimes joked that Remus's superpower had been the ability to smell a lie or trouble but Remus put that down to simply knowing his friends too well. Of course there was going to be trouble when you threw dung bombs into the toilets opposite the staff room…it didn't take any great superpower, werewolf or otherwise, to figure that one out.

Still, even without the stealthy ability that would have been so useful right now, Remus was easily able to approach the boys without being noticed. He was assisted by the fact that their voices were raised in a heated argument.

"I wouldn't have to stick to you like glue if you weren't acting so suspiciously!" the other Remus yelled.

"_I'm_ acting suspiciously?" the other Sirius yelled back. "We need to at least _try_ to get on with the others whilst we're here."

"He's a ruddy werewolf!"

"That doesn't mean he's one of them!"

"How can he not be?"

"It's a different world here," Sirius replied in a quieter voice.

"Not _that_ different. They still have a dark wizard gaining power here. You're telling me that he isn't recruiting dark creatures like the one in our world is?"

"Even if he is Remus is just a student, the same as we are."

"He's a monster, you said so yourself."

"Maybe I was wrong."

"Maybe you were right."

"Making his life a misery isn't going to help our world any!"

"I never said it would."

"Look," Sirius made an obvious effort to calm down. "We've got a mission to do. Dumbledore's trusting us. We can't let ourselves get side-tracked."

"You should try telling Lillian that," Remus snorted. "I saw her slipping down to the Slytherin quarters earlier, no doubt to check on Sev."

"Can't she get it through her head that he's not the same person?" Sirius sighed in frustration.

"She's still reeling from the shock of losing both James and our Sev," Remus said quietly. "She took it pretty hard. If the James of this world wasn't looking at the bunch of us like he wanted to hex us into the middle of next week, she'd be all over him instead."

"And whose fault is it that he wants to hex us?" Sirius asked sarcastically.

"Look," Remus commanded with an impatient sigh. "Just stop trying to make friends with them and stick to the mission."

"I'm not trying to make friends," Sirius argued. "I just wanted to apologise for what I said."

"You don't need to apologise to a werewolf," Remus pointed out with another sigh. "And why don't you ask yourself just _why_ you want to apologise? In case you hadn't noticed during our stay here he's sleeping with the other you."

"Let's just stick to the mission," Sirius ground out. "The sooner this is over with, the sooner we can go home."

The other Remus nodded and turned to walk away. The other Sirius sat down on the grass and pulled up a couple of blades of grass.

"I can tell you're there," he said quietly before turning to cast a look over his shoulder to where Remus was still hiding under the invisibility cloak. He turned back to the water. "Don't take the cloak off though."

Remus looked back towards the castle and saw that the other Remus was standing near the entrance to the castle looking towards Sirius. They were out of his earshot but Remus knew that he'd be back over there like a shot if he saw Remus appearing from under the cloak. Taking care to remain concealed he sat down beside the other Sirius. "How could you tell?"

"Our James has – had – an invisibility cloak too."

"What happened to him?" Remus asked quietly.

"The school was attacked a few days before we were sent here. James was killed in the fight."

"But doesn't your school have protective wards and spells?"

"Of course it does. But they had inside help."

"A traitor?"

"Yes," Sirius hissed with pure venom. "There's always been prejudices within the school. Pureblood versus halfbloods and muggleborns."

"It's the same here."

"Not quite."

"What do you mean?"

"Here, the persecuted are the muggleborns," the other Sirius said softly. "In our world it's the purebloods who are attacked for no reason other than their ancestry."

"And you and Lillian are purebloods…" Remus thought back to Lillian's reaction to the Slytherins calling her a mudblood. "Lillian thought they were accusing her of being one of your dark wizard's followers?"

"Yes."

"And because she hadn't realised that our world is a bit of a reversal of your own, she thought our Lily might be dangerous?"

"It probably didn't help that she'd heard about what your Lily did to our James when he kissed her last month."

"He told her about that?" Remus spluttered.

"I know, I know…what a berk!" Sirius grinned momentarily and leaned back on his elbows. Then, all too suddenly, he seemed to remember that his friend was no longer there to defend himself and a shadow crossed his face once more. "James and Sev were the ones who first called her Lily by the way. That's why she said she prefers to go by Lillian now. Too painful for her."

"And your Severus?" Remus whispered, almost afraid of hearing the answer to the unspoken questions.

"He's a half-blood but he stood up with the purebloods to fight the intruders. He was taken prisoner by them; we don't know what's happened to him."

"The other me?" Remus asked. "What's he?"

"Half blood same as Sev," Sirius confirmed.

"And your Peter?"

"Muggle born and missing too."

"You don't think he's joined the other side do you?"

"I don't know, none of us do."

"You and Lillian, your families are being targeted aren't they?"

"They're in hiding. That's why we can't go home from school like the other purebloods. My parents work high up in the Ministry and Lillian's ancestors helped to found St Mungo's. We're top of the list of targets."

"And Remus's family?"

"Killed while we were in this world," Sirius whispered. "They were attacked by a pack of werewolves. The half breeds all flocked to the other side in this war."

Remus didn't know what to say. No wonder their visitors hated him.

"I'm sorry," Sirius offered quietly, momentarily turning his face towards Remus for the first time since he'd sat down on the grass. "In our world werewolves are monsters and are actively fighting against us in a war that we're losing."

"Most of them in this world haven't taken sides yet," Remus admitted. "I'd fight for Dumbledore though; no question about it; without him I wouldn't even be here at Hogwarts."

"We all reacted badly when we found out about you," Sirius offered. "I'd like to say that Remus will come round eventually, but I doubt he will. He won't tell anyone else your secret though."

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure."

"Why didn't you tell me all about the war and the other differences back when you were here before?" Remus asked. "We talked a lot about the way the two worlds were different and you never mentioned that the prejudices were different."

"At first we didn't realise that the opposite was true in this world," Sirius explained quietly. "The prejudices are the same on the surface, it's only when you look deeper you see how different our two worlds really are."

"And your mission here?" Remus asked.

"I can't tell you that."

"We might be able to help you all," Remus pointed out, wishing he could come out from under the increasingly hot cloak and let the other boy see his earnest expression.

"No one can help us," Sirius replied quietly. "Our war is lost already."

"It's not lost," Remus assured him. "Not whilst there are still people willing to fight."

"And who said we still want to fight?" Sirius hissed.

Remus opened his mouth to reply but Sirius had jumped to his feet and was already halfway back to the castle.

* * *

"I put the cloak back in your trunk Prongs," Remus said as he joined Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail in the common room.

"And the map?" Sirius asked with a mock frown.

"Right here," Remus said as he patted the pocket of his robes.

"Using your wiles to nick it out of my robes was very sneaky you know?"

"I learned all my sneakiness from you," Remus teased as he pulled up a chair and gestured for James to deal him in for the next round of cards.

"I'm fairly sure I didn't teach you anything like _that_," Sirius muttered although he couldn't stop the smile from appearing on his face.

"I'd take the credit if I were you Padfoot," Peter advised with a grin of his own. "That was a great bit of sneakiness."

"Are you going to tell us what you've been up to?" James asked.

"Just a bit of spying," Remus commented casually.

"Found out anything interesting?"

Remus nodded seriously and filled them in on the conversation he'd overheard, making sure not to mention the other Remus's comment about him sleeping with Sirius. The last thing he needed was a jealous Padfoot to go along with the overprotective one.

"I'm dead?" James asked in a tight voice.

"They think I'm a traitor?" Peter asked.

"Well not you two," Remus reminded them. "The others."

"Wonder what their mission is," Sirius wondered aloud.

"He wouldn't say."

"I guess we'll have to do a bit more sneaking around to find out then," Sirius replied with a grin.

"We could grab the other Remus and threaten to set Moony on him next full moon," Peter suggested.

"Tempting," James added.

"No!" Sirius snapped. Remus jumped in his seat and knew exactly what was going through the other boy's mind. "Moony isn't a weapon for us to use. I made that mistake once and it's not going to happen again."

Remus reached across the table and took one of his hands in his own. "You know I've forgiven you for that," he said quietly.

"I know," Sirius replied equally quietly. "It'll take a while before I forgive myself though."

Remus squeezed his hand again, knowing that this was something Sirius had to deal with himself.

"Onto Plan B then," James said with a grin. "I seduce the information out of Lillian."

Remus groaned and banged his head on the table.

"What?" James asked. "With Remus's tips on how to get girls, this plan can't fail!"

"Moony," Sirius's voice came from above him as he banged his head on the table a second time. "You're going to give yourself a concussion if you keep doing that."

"And don't forget to put in a good word with Lily at the prefects' meeting," James added with a grin. "You did promise."

Remus hit his head on the desk one last time, this time not bothering to sit back up.

"Happy now Prongs?" asked Sirius and Remus felt a hand brushing lightly over his hair. "Your obsession with Evans has finally sent Moony over the edge."

"Rubbish," Peter said. "Moony's always been the real nutter of the group."

"How do you figure that?" Sirius asked.

Remus groaned silently, easily anticipating what was coming next.

"Well he's dating _you_ isn't he?" Peter teased.

"I…I…" Sirius stammered.

"You walked right into that one Padfoot," Remus said as he sat back up to see Sirius trying, and failing, to look annoyed whilst Peter and James were grinning like they'd been overdosing on cheering charms. "So I guess I'd better coming up with a Plan C, right?"

Sirius's scowl disappeared the moment an identical one appeared on James's face.

"Maybe I'll have better luck with Lillian," muttered James, folding his arms and glaring around the room.

"Thought you were saving yourself for Lily?" Peter asked.

"It can't be considered cheating if it's for a higher purpose, and with another Lily," James announced.

"Yes it can," Sirius argued. "It'd be like the Moony trying to seduce the other Sirius and saying it's okay. By the way Remus, that better not be Plan C, or D or any other letter of the alphabet…"

James laughed loudly.

"What's so funny?" Sirius asked as he glared across the table.

"Yesterday you were still convinced that the others were going to be trying to stab Moony in his sleep or something. Now this…"

"I'm just saying," Sirius said. "I worry."

"You don't have to," Remus replied. "Not about that anyway. But I am worried about what their mission might be."

"We should find out as soon as possible," James agreed.

The rest of the marauders nodded but none of them could come up with a single idea as to how they were going to go about it.


	5. Snuffles the Spy

Chapter 5

"Moony, Moony, Moony," Sirius chided as he approached Remus who was seated in his favourite spot on the couch near the fire in the Gryffindor common room.

"Padfoot, Padfoot, Padfoot," Remus replied without looking up from his book.

"Please tell me you're not studying on this lovely Sunday afternoon."

"I'm not studying on this _lovely _Sunday afternoon," Remus dutifully replied with a pointed glance towards the windows where the persistent heavy rain was still falling.

"Study time's over," Sirius announced. "Now it's Sirius time."

"I'm not studying," Remus replied as he patted the seat next to him. Sirius flopped down on the sofa beside him and rested his head on Remus's lap.

"So whatcha reading?" he asked as Remus turned the page. "And why are you frowning like that if it's not a text book?"

"It's a mystery and the wizard I'd pegged as the murderer just turned up as body number four."

"Guess you're not as smart as I thought," Sirius teased.

"At least I can manage to make it through a book that doesn't have pictures in it," Remus retorted with a grin.

"Maybe the killer is a twin, or has a double," Sirius suggested after a few moments.

Remus's jaw dropped slightly and he began flicking back through the book. "You could be right, you know?"

"I'm just brilliant," Sirius gloated. "So where are _our_ doubles today?"

"In the library I think."

"Want to go spy on them?"

"Not really," Remus replied. "They're doing their homework, and you know as well as I do that even if they're talking about their mission they will clam up as soon as they see any of us within hearing distance."

"Looks like Lillian has finished her work," Sirius commented with a nod towards the portrait hole.

"That looks like our Lily to me," he replied, though he had to admit that he wasn't entirely sure.

"With them sharing their wardrobes, it's getting a bit hard to tell," Sirius admitted. "Hey Lily-an!"

The redhead turned to glare at him before stalking towards the nearest empty table.

"Did that clear things up for you?" Remus asked.

"Must be Lillian," Sirius muttered. "Our Lily would have at least said something back, even if it was just to sod off."

Remus nodded in agreement.

The sound of footsteps coming down the stairs from the dormitory indicated that James was about to join them. Remus sighed quietly at what he suspected would be the latest attempt of Prongs to sweet talk information out of Lillian. When they had come up with no other plan James had decided this was their only course of action. The other three had tried to talk him out of it but there was no reasoning with him.

"This is going to be painful," Sirius whispered as they watched James approach Lillian. "Two sickles says she slaps him again."

"I don't know," Remus whispered back. "She looks really mad. I think she might actually knee him in family jewels this time. That's what she threatened to do if he hit on her again."

"Bet?" Sirius asked as he raised his hand. Remus shook it and nodded before fixing his attention on the entertainment across the room.

"So Lillian," James said as he sat down opposite the girl. "We still haven't had the chance to get to know each other properly yet. How about I give you the grand tour of all the secluded corners of this fine school?"

"How about you bugger off and leave me alone like I've been telling you to do for the last five and a half years?"

"Lily?" James asked hesitantly.

"Bin-go!" Lily replied sarcastically.

James grinned sheepishly. "Oops."

"Oops," Lily repeated as she glared at James. Then she stood up, delivered him a sharp kick to the shin and stalked towards the dormitory.

"Wonder what's got her knickers in a knot," James muttered as he limped over to Remus and Sirius.

"I can't imagine," Remus murmured with a barely hidden smile. "Don't feel too bad, we thought it was Lillian too."

"We've got to think of a new plan," said James. He dropped into the chair opposite the other boys and pulled up his trouser leg to assess the damage. "This one's hazardous to my health."

"We'll come up with something," Sirius replied as he stretched out a little further.

"Padfoot, you're taking up too much room again," Remus complained. "Budge over a bit before I end up on the floor."

"This better?" Sirius asked, and after a quick glance round the room to make sure that it was still empty he transformed into the large black dog that was his animagus form.

"One of these days you're going to do that just as McGonagall walks in the door," Remus warned. Padfoot looked back at him with an expression that clearly said that such a thing could never possibly happen to him. Then he settled back down, resting his head on Remus's lap once more. Remus shook his head slightly and patted Padfoot's head. Padfoot arched into his hand, encouraging Remus to stroke his back.

"Would you two like to be alone together?" James asked with a lecherous grin.

"Would you like to be covered in boils?" Remus replied with a grin of his own. "Anyway, I've always stroked Padfoot like this. It calms him down and helps him sleep."

Padfoot lifted his head and nodded slightly.

"It's the middle of the day," James pointed out. "He doesn't need to be sleeping, he needs to be thinking of a way to help me repair the damage I've just done to my relationship with Lily."

"What relationship?" Remus asked.

"You're just no help at all."

"Just give it time and stop hitting on her, especially stop hitting on her and calling her Lillian when you do it."

James groaned and shut his eyes. Remus suspected he was waiting for some kind of inspiration to hit and decided to turn back to his book.

"Oh, what a cute doggie!"

Remus looked up and saw Lillian standing next to him and looking down at Padfoot. _Cute?_ He raised an eyebrow at Padfoot who looked about as smug as a dog could look at the unexpected compliment.

"What's his name?" Lillian asked as she reached to pet him.

"Si-Snuffles," Remus stuttered. "Snuffles."

"Ah, who's an ickle cutie-pie? I didn't know you could keep dogs here."

"The school's pretty flexible about pets," James stated with a grin. "There's a fourth year in Slytherin with a pet python and a fifth year in Hufflepuff with a horse she uses to ride into Hogsmeade."

"We can only bring cats, owls and toads," Lillian said sadly. "I had to leave my dog at home with my parents. She's a terrier."

"This one's just a terror," Remus replied. "He likes to think he's the Grim."

"The only thing grim about him is the fleas," James snickered.

Padfoot growled at James and Lillian pulled her hand back sharply.

"He doesn't have fleas," Remus assured her. "Not at the moment anyway."

Padfoot turned his indignant expression on Remus and made to nip at his fingers.

"He bites?" Lillian asked as she hesitated again.

"Not often," Remus replied, consciously shifting his collar slightly to cover the rather noticeable hickie on his neck that Sirius had given him the previous day. He could tell that James had caught his movement and he felt his face flushing.

"Can I take him for a walk some time?" Lillian asked. "I really miss my own dog and I'll take good care of him. I'd let him have a real good run in the grounds."

"I think he'd like that," James said with a wicked grin at Padfoot. "He loves to go out for long walks in the rain but no one likes to take him."

"I'll take him now if you like," Lillian said with a bright smile. "Oh please can I?"

"I don't see why not," replied Remus, even as Padfoot closed his eyes and let loose a few fake grunts as he pretended to be asleep.

"I'll just run and get my cloak," Lillian said with a smile as she dashed for the stairs.

As soon as she was out of sight Sirius transformed back and glared at his two so-called friends.

"Brilliant idea, Padfoot," Remus said immediately and he kissed Sirius soundly on the lips.

"Going out in the rain is not brilliant!" Sirius hissed back. No amount of kisses could make up for the betrayal of his friends in such an underhand manner. "I want to stay here and snuggle up in front of the fire."

"But endearing yourself to Lillian as Padfoot…er Snuffles…is inspired," James chimed in. "You can spy on them easily as a dog and they'll never know it's you."

"And Snuffles?" Sirius glared at Remus. "What sort of a stupid ruddy name is Snuffles? How could you? I thought you loved me and you give me a name like Snuffles."

"Sorry," Remus replied sheepishly. "It was the only word that came to mind that started with an S. I nearly called you Sirius and if I'd called you Padfoot…well the others know it's your nickname, they'd figure out what you've done."

"I think it's cute," James teased. "Who's an ickle cutie-pie?"

"Sod off Prongs!"

"You'd better change back into Padfoot again," Remus said as he heard footsteps coming down the stairs again.

"I'll get my own back for this," Sirius muttered and he turned back into the large black dog and tried to look enthusiastic at the prospect of running outside in the pouring rain.

"Where's his collar and lead?" Lillian asked as she tried to drag a rather reluctant Snuffles off of the sofa.

"He doesn't have one," Remus replied.

"I'll have to see about buying him one on the next Hogsmeade weekend," Lillian said with a smile at Snuffles that told him that she wouldn't forget this particular threat…promise.

"I'm sure he'd like that," James commented. "I think a nice pink one with studded diamonds on would suit him nicely."

That got Snuffles moving and he leapt from the sofa and launched himself at James.

It took Lillian nearly ten minutes to pull Snuffles away from James and drag him out of the room.

"That. Was. Really. Mean," Remus said between howls of laughter.

"I've got to get my camera ready for any and all photo opportunities," James said as he dashed for the dorms.

* * *

The total and utter indignity of it was more than Sirius ever thought he'd have to suffer.

Lillian had been wearing her hair in two bunches tied with a peach coloured ribbon. In the absence of a lead she had taken her hair down, tied it up in a single ponytail with one ribbon and magically extended the other into a lead for himself.

A lead!

Made of peach coloured ribbon!

It just wasn't manly and he knew that if James and Remus saw him when they arrived back at the tower they would never let him live it down.

"Hey look, we match!" Lillian exclaimed cheerfully. Sirius thought he might just cry at the horror of it all.

There was nothing else for it…this called for drastic measures. Sirius pulled on the makeshift lead and guided Lillian towards the path that would take them to Hagrid's hut…and very muddy vegetable patch.

He'd be teased about rolling in the mud like a real dog but at least the wretched ribbon would be brown instead of the sickly peach colour.

"Bad doggie!" Lillian chided as Sirius yanked the ribbon out of her hand and darted for the muddiest patch of ground he could find.

When he was sure that every trace of peach was covered in mud he trotted back over to Lillian with a smug look. So much for matching ribbons…somehow he couldn't see her rolling around in the mud too.

"It'll be a bath for you when we get back to the school," Lillian warned as she pointed her wand at the ribbon and instantly cleaned it.

_NO!_

That she hadn't cleaned him as well just added to the whole indignity.

"I love bathing my little Susie," Lillian said. "She likes her doggie bubble bath so much. I wish I had some of it with me. You'd smell of flowers for days afterwards."

Sirius thanked whatever forces may have been listening for the small mercy that she didn't have the flowery bubble bath with her.

James was _so_ going to pay for this. As for Remus…he'd…he'd…damn it, he'd forgive him right away as he always did. There was no point in denying it. He couldn't stay mad at Remus and he was all too eager to get to the making up part…or the making out part as he was already starting to think of it.

"I wonder if you've been done," Lillian commented idly as they walked through the rain towards the Forbidden Forest.

Sirius perked his ears up slightly. _Done? Done what?_

"I mean you don't even have a collar or anything. I bet they haven't even thought of the possibility of you fathering dozens of puppies."

_Puppies? She can't mean that sort of done…can she?_

"I'll tell you what Snuffles, when we go to Hogsmeade next I'll see if there's an animal healer in the village who can get you done before I have to go back home."

Sirius felt his blood run cold and he bolted for the trees. He hadn't signed up for _this_.

"Snuffles, come back!" Lillian called through the trees.

_Not on your life! _

"Snuffles, please come back!"

It was the barely stifled sob at the end of her plea that stopped Sirius in his tracks. Lillian caught up with him and picked up the ribbon/lead again.

He'd just have to make sure that when the Hogsmeade weekend came round he was Sirius and not Padfoot. It was a shame because he'd planned on using his other identity to sneak into the village.

"Maybe we should head back," Lillian speculated to herself as she pulled Sirius back towards the castle. Sirius let himself be towed back up the path, hoping that he could bypass James and Remus before they spotted him.

It was then he spotted Peter in the doorway to the castle, armed with James's camera. It just wasn't dignified.

"What are you doing?" Lillian snapped at Peter.

"Just getting a picture of _Snuffles_ after his walk in the rain," Peter commented with a malicious grin at Sirius.

"Why?"

"Because I don't have one," Peter replied with a shrug.

"Ruddy weirdo," Lillian muttered as she pushed past him.

"I think he needs a bath," Peter called after her. "Dogs are so messy and smelly when they've been walked in the rain."

Sirius turned to growl at Peter, who was now ranked up alongside James as someone who was _going to pay_.

"Just one thing Lillian," Peter called up the stairs.

"What?" Lillian stopped and glared down at Peter. Sirius could see him cringe under her glare and almost felt sorry for his friend. Then he remembered the camera and any sympathy vanished.

"Snuffles…" _snicker_ "…doesn't like anyone except Remus to bath him."

"He doesn't?" Lillian asked suspiciously.

"Just one of those doggy quirks. If you try to bath him he'll get vicious. He's got quite a nasty temper."

"I guess you know best," Lillian muttered. "I'll go find Remus and let him take over."

She turned to carry on up the stairs towards Gryffindor Tower pulling at the lead to drag Sirius/Snuffles along with her.

Sirius turned to take a look back at Peter who winked at him with a wide grin. Perhaps he could give him a reprieve for saving him from having to explain to Remus why he was in the girls' bathroom with Lillian. He wondered if he could persuade Remus to let him use the prefects' bathroom as a way of making it up to him for the earlier teasing.

He bounded through the portrait hole after Lillian and immediately spotted James and Remus playing a game of chess near the fireplace.

"Don't you _dare_ jump on the furniture!" Remus warned as he pointed to the staircase.

"Well aren't you going to bath him?" Lillian asked curiously when it was clear that Remus wasn't moving to follow after the wet and muddy dog that had bounded up the stairs.

It was on the tip of his tongue to reply that he was quite capable of bathing himself but then he remembered who he was talking to. "Um…yeah…I'd better go…er…yeah…bath…um…"

His face flushed as he caught James waggling his eyebrows at him behind Lillian's back. "I won't be long," he commented. "I wouldn't want to miss dinner, it's venison tonight I believe." James blanched slightly at his words and Remus smirked as he headed to the staircase. Behind him he heard Lillian muttering something about the world being full of weirdoes.

"Sirius?" Remus called out as he knocked on the bathroom door.

A bark sounded from inside the room and Remus pushed open the door hesitantly.

The room was empty apart one very muddy and very wet dog.

"Why haven't you changed back?" Remus asked as he closed and locked the door behind him.

Padfoot lifted his front right paw to bat at his neck.

"Got fleas again?" Remus asked with a sigh.

Padfoot growled and batted again.

"Oh," Remus said as he realised what the problem was. The ribbon that had been tied around his neck was still knotted and hanging from him. Remus made short work of the knot and now that there was no risk of him being accidentally choked on the ribbon Sirius transformed back.

"Had fun?" Remus asked with a grin.

Sirius glared back. "A peach ribbon for a lead, threats of flowery-scented bubble bath, and she wants to get me done!" he growled.

"Done?"

"_Done!_" Sirius repeated with a pointed glance downwards.

"Oh," Remus snickered. "I wouldn't let her do that to you, mate."

"This is another incarnation of Lily Evans we're talking about," Sirius muttered. "You think you could stop her?"

Remus couldn't stop the grin that was forming on his face at Sirius's horrified expression.

"I'm glad you find this so funny," Sirius sulked.

"You'll feel better once you're clean," Remus told him as he stood up and turned on the shower.

"I'd feel better if you joined me," Sirius suggested with a grin of his own. Remus ducked away from his boyfriend's outstretched hand that was positively caked in mud.

"I don't need a shower," he replied. "Besides, anyone could walk in on us."

"We could always use the prefect's bathroom…" He reached for Remus again but the other boy was too quick for him and he easily evaded the mud monster that Sirius bore a startling resemblance to.

"Tell you what," Remus bargained. "If you carry on infiltrating the others as Snuffles and find out what their mission is I'll make sure that we make excellent use of the prefects' bathroom during the Easter holidays when there's less chance of us getting caught in there."

"Promise?" Sirius questioned in a doubtful tone.

"Promise," Remus replied as he planted a quick kiss on Sirius's forehead, the only part of his face that had managed to avoid the mud.

"Snuffles the Spy!" Sirius muttered. "I swear if anyone else ever finds out about this I'll just _die_."

"You won't die Padfoot," Remus replied with a sigh.

"I'll be the first person in recorded history to literally die of embarrassment."

Remus chuckled as he left Sirius to his shower and complaints. As plans went it wasn't perfect, a perfect plan would have had an enthusiastic Sirius instead of a reluctant one, but it was the best and only plan they had.


	6. Padfoot Undercover

Chapter 6

"I can't believe you talked me into this," Sirius grumbled as he put off the inevitable moment of doom by pacing in the boys' bathroom.

"Look at it this way," James said as he grabbed hold of Sirius's arm and forcibly dragged him to the door. "Lillian likes you as Snuffles…you can add another female to your list of conquests."

"I don't have a list of conquests, and even if I did I wouldn't want to be adding that scatty drip to it. That's your department isn't it?"

"Not since I hit on Lily and called her Lillian again. It's getting too confusing having both of them around. I really thought I'd made some progress with Lily after the others went back to their own world. Now she seems to hate me even more than she did before."

"I still don't see why _I _have to spy on them," Sirius whined.

"Because I think they might notice a ruddy great stag wandering around the school," James pointed out.

"What about Wormtail? He can sneak up to them without being seen…if he really tries."

"You know that plan was shot down when Lillian spotted him in the library yesterday. She screamed like a ruddy banshee and nearly gave Pince a heart attack. He's taking the second shift if he absolutely has to, but you're our best hope. Though at least Peter was quite happy to try to spy on them and not kicking up a fuss about it like a certain dog I could mention."

"He hadn't been threatened with pink collars, bubble baths and the snip," Sirius muttered.

James laughed and continued to tug him along the corridor. Sirius supposed it was an improvement that at least this time James wasn't rolling on the floor, clutching his sides and giving every indication that he was about to have a seizure.

"Okay, in here," James muttered as he pulled Sirius into an empty classroom. "Well what are you waiting for?"

"For Moony to rush in and rescue me from a fate worse than death?" Sirius suggested with a hopeful look back at the door.

"No chance, he's doing one of his detentions. Now stop wasting time."

Sirius grumbled for a few moments more but eventually transformed into Padfoot, also known as Snuffles, and let James lead him down to the Entrance Hall where Lillian was waiting to take him 'walkies'.

"And remember to report back anything useful they say about their mission," James reminded him.

_Like I'd forget anything important and risk having to go through this all over again,_ Sirius thought to himself. He shot James a look that he hoped conveyed this thought but James merely grinned back at him and led him down the final flight of stairs.

Lillian was standing in the Entrance Hall, a proper dog lead in her hands this time. The lead was white with some sort of red pattern on it. When they drew closer Sirius could see that the red pattern was in fact little love hearts and he wondered if James had noticed. From the smirk on his face he suspected he had. He wondered how long it would be before Remus and Peter knew about it too and he sighed.

"Has he already been for a walk?" Lillian asked. "He just panted."

"He's just eager to get going?" James assured her.

_Traitor! There goes my last hope of reprieve. _

"Come on then Snuffles," Lillian chirped as she tried to put the lead on him. Sirius dodged it several times before James decided to take his treachery to a whole new level and actually went so far as to help her keep him still.

"Have fun Snuffles," James snickered. "Tell us all about it later."

"Weirdo," Lillian muttered as she tugged Sirius out of the door.

_Trust the harpy to have bought a flipping choker chain_.

Lillian dragged Sirius all round the grounds before finally settling down to chat with the other Sirius and the other Remus in a secluded spot near the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

"So that's the famous Snuffles is it?" Sirius asked.

"Ugly mutt," Remus commented with a sneer.

_Ugly?_ Sirius was sure he'd never been so insulted in his life. He'd been called lots of things, many highly uncomplimentary, but even his own family at their most vitriolic had never called him ugly.

"Don't you listen Snuffles," Lillian said as she grabbed a hold of his ears and pinned them to his head. It didn't block out the talking, it was just very uncomfortable.

"Can he do any tricks?" Sirius asked curiously.

_Tricks? Hmm, I can turn into a human being again which I think would be a pretty good trick,_ Sirius thought to himself idly, knowing that he couldn't actually do it in front of them but relishing the thought that his double couldn't perform the same 'trick' at all.

"I don't know," Lillian mused quietly. "Wait here, I'll be back in a minute." The two boys and Padfoot watched Lillian disappear into the trees before reappearing a few minutes later with what looked like a dead branch. On closer inspection they could see that that was exactly what it was.

"Look what I've found," she chirped delightedly.

_A branch? Hardly worth getting excited about. It is a forest after all, what were you expecting to find? Ravenclaw's lost diadem would be worth getting excited about, maybe, but a branch!? Some people just have no concept of what sort of occasion actually requires this sort of enthusiasm._

"What do you think?" Lillian asked as she waved the branch in front of his nose. "Want to play fetch?"

_Er…no._

"Fetch!" Lillian called as she tossed the branch away before turning to him with a grin. "Go fetch!"

_You want the ruddy branch? You go fetch it back._ He stretched out, leaned his head on his paws and closed his eyes. He hoped she'd take the hint.

She didn't. "Go fetch!" Lillian tried again. "You know you want to really."

_I know I really don't._

"Mutt's too stupid to know how to fetch," Remus muttered.

_Stupid? We'll see about that!_ The slander to his intelligence couldn't go unanswered and Sirius strolled, as slowly as he could, to the branch and picked it up with between his teeth. He tried not to think about how long the branch had been lying on the forest floor and what other creatures might have been near it recently. He took it slowly back to Lillian who was jumping up and down, clapping her hands and cheering. _Some people are so easily pleased._

"I knew you could do it," she gushed as she took the branch and threw it again. "Go fetch."

_Fat chance._ Sirius stretched out again and pretended to sleep. _I've been dragged all around the grounds already, I'm tired, and I've proven I can fetch the stupid stick. I don't need to do it over and over. There's not an ounce of fat on this body. You on the other hand could still stand to lose a few pounds, so go get it yourself._

Unfortunately Sirius's rant was all rather pointless because Lillian couldn't hear a word of it and simply stood harping on at him to 'go fetch'.

"Perhaps he's tired?" the other Sirius suggested.

_At last, someone with a little sense. Should have known it'd be the other me!_

"I wonder if he knows how to beg," Lillian said with, if it was possible, even more enthusiasm than she had shown over the idea of playing fetch.

_Beg? BEG? Sirius Black does NOT beg! Never! A certain Remus Lupin, who also goes by the name of Moony, might disagree with that statement but it is entirely untrue. I might ask rather demandingly on occasion, but I never beg._

"Would you beg for a biscuit?" asked Lillian, as she pulled what might once have passed for a dog biscuit out of her pocket and waved it in what she probably thought was an enticing manner.

_I don't beg for anything, and certainly not for a crummy looking biscuit that looks like it's been eaten and regurgitated several times already._ Sirius looked to where the two boys were eating goodies purloined from the kitchens and eyed up the iced bun that neither had yet reached for. It only took an instant to make the decision to steal it from them and wolf it down himself.

"Damn stupid mutt!" Remus yelled as he batted him roughly away. Sirius let out an involuntary whine as the boy's hand connected sharply with the side of his head.

"What did you do that for?" Lillian shouted. "He hasn't done anything to you. He's just a dumb dog!"

_Who are you calling dumb? I fetched your flaming stick didn't I?_

"Why are you even looking after the stupid animal anyway? Can't the werewolf look after his own pet?"

"Here we go again," Sirius muttered. "Can you give it a rest for just a few hours?" Lillian nodded in agreement.

_Oh let him carry on. I'm just dying for an excuse to bite him._ Sirius narrowed his doggy eyes and glared at Remus but it seemed that the main argument here, that being Moony, was an old one that the others were bored of listening to. Within a few minutes Remus had stalked off leaving Lillian and Sirius with Padfoot.

"So did Severus have anything useful to say?" Sirius asked in an overly casual tone.

"We spoke this morning," Lillian replied before closing her mouth as though she hadn't meant to say anything and had been caught off guard.

"And?"

Lillian looked like she wasn't going to say anything further but at a little more prompting from Sirius she finally spoke. "I asked him if he'd heard of it."

"Has he?"

"No, but he's going to think about it and see if he can find out anything."

"Could he think a little faster perhaps? Does he realise that time is rather an issue and we don't really have that much of it?"

"I thought you didn't want us asking for any help from the locals?" Lillian retorted sharply. "And at least I'm trying to find out about it, which is more than I can say about you."

"I'm hitting the books every chance I get. It's not like I can ask anyone. When we left before things were complicated with the others," Sirius explained impatiently, as though he'd gone through this argument before too.

"It's hardly my fault that you stuffed things up when you came back here last time. You need to try to repair the damage and try and get their help too. The more of us that are looking the better chance we have of finding it."

"What's the point anyway?"

"The point?" Lillian screeched. "The point is it's the only chance we've got to turn things around back home."

"I don't recall you were too bothered about that when we first came here."

"I…"

"Hadn't met the other James and Sev then," Sirius muttered with a roll of his eyes. "Don't tell me you're not seriously considering trying to convince one of them to come back with us to our world?"

"So what if I am?"

"This Severus belongs in this world, not in ours."

"How do you know it's not James I'm considering?" Lillian smirked.

"Because you've been sneaking down to the Slytherin quarters so frequently even Remus has noticed."

"Our Remus?" Lillian paled.

"Yes, that one," Sirius snapped. "Don't worry, he thinks you're just going to him because you miss our Sev. I…er…sort of let him think that too."

"Thanks Sirius," Lillian whispered quietly. "Why did you let him think that?"

"It'd only cause more arguments if I said anything. With my best friend dead and two others missing I didn't really want the rest of us fighting. We're all we've got."

"You've still got to start working on repairing your relationship with the others so they can help us," Lillian sighed. "We don't have to do this alone. I thought you were getting along better with the other Remus, Moony or whatever they call him. Couldn't you ask him for help?"

"Hmm, let me think," Sirius's voice was laced with sarcasm. "I ask Moony the werewolf to help and our Remus will be _happy_ about that. Somehow I can't see it happening, can you?"

"There's no need to be like that. Us fighting isn't going go help things," Lillian answered, her voice lowering back to its normal level. "Do you ever wonder if this mission Dumbledore sent us on is all a load of rubbish?"

"Why would I think that?" Sirius asked. Though Padfoot, still listening intently, thought he detected a note in his voice that might suggest that the thought had crossed his mind before that moment.

"You remember what Dumbledore said the day before we left?"

"You mean that long rambling speech about spies and standing together?"

"Yes." Lillian nodded. "I wonder if Dumbledore thinks one of us is the spy and sent us to this world to keep us out of the way, just in case."

"I might have thought the same thing once or twice," Sirius admitted.

"Have you noticed how Remus has been-"

"Remus isn't a spy," Sirius snapped, cutting Lillian off mid-sentence. "He's a great many things, but why would he join the very group of people that murdered his parents?"

"You're letting your personal feelings get in the way of your judgement again," Lillian warned.

"Well if that isn't the pot calling the kettle, I don't know what is. Suggested a little trip to a parallel world to Sev yet?"

"No!" Lillian snapped. "But think about it Sirius. If Peter was a spy why would he disappear? He was perfectly situated to carry on and the only reason he's a suspect is because he vanished."

"And because he's muggleborn."

"So are several dozen other students still at the school, and no one's pointing the finger at them. Peter disappearing probably proves more that he isn't the spy than he is."

"Remus isn't a spy!" Sirius hissed.

"What makes you so sure?"

"I just know it."

"The only way you'd know it is if you're the spy," Lillian countered.

"Or if I'm sure that _you are_," Sirius replied.

"I'm not a spy. My ancestors helped found St Mungos. The other side wouldn't want me."

"What makes you think they'd want me?" Sirius retorted.

"Your family's Ministry connections," Lillian replied instantly.

"You can't seriously think I'm a spy?" Sirius asked, shaking his head in astonishment.

"Well it's either you or Remus and if you want me to believe it's not him, then it has to be you."

"Or maybe we're both just being paranoid and Dumbledore really wants us to find the you-know-what and Remus is just acting strangely because he's just lost both his parents and three of his best friends are either dead or missing." At that Sirius turned and walked back to the castle, leaving Lillian and Padfoot on the edge of the forest.

* * *

"Padfoot!" James exclaimed. "It's about time."

Sirius had finally managed to escape from Lillian and had made his way to the Shrieking Shack, the building that had become their headquarters since the dormitory was no longer as private as they would have liked.

Sirius transformed back into his human body and sat down on the mattress next to Remus.

"What happened to you?" Remus asked, raising his hand to his face, but hesitating to touch him.

Sirius frowned and raised his own hand to his cheek, wincing at the tenderness he felt. "Don't worry about it," he shrugged. "I've got loads to tell you."

"You can start by telling me what happened to your face," Remus ordered as he pulled out his wand and pointed it at the bruised skin.

"The other you didn't like it when I nicked a cake," Sirius admitted.

Remus's eyes narrowed at Sirius's words and he shook his head rapidly. "Don't even think about it."

"You don't know what I'm thinking."

"Yes I do. I've seen that look before. Every time you spotted some bruise or another when I was back at Grimmauld Place."

"I just don't like to see anyone beating on you."

"Don't worry about it. Besides, you haven't heard what I've got to report."

The others sat down and listened as Sirius reported back everything he had heard.

"So they think that Dumbledore's sent them on some fake mission just to get them out of the way in case one of them is a spy?" James asked sceptically.

"It makes more sense than me being the spy," Peter piped up, having been thoroughly pleased with that particular revelation.

"It's a possibility," Sirius corrected.

"And_ Snivellus_ knows what the mission is?" James sneered, the thought of Snape knowing something that he didn't, not sitting well with him at all.

"Not much chance of him telling any of us though," Remus pointed out.

"Maybe we could get Lily to ask him," James suggested.

Sirius looked doubtful. "You think she'd do that for us?"

"It can't hurt to ask." James smiled at the thought of having an excuse to talk to Lily again.

"Just make sure it's the right Lily this time," Peter snickered.

"I wonder if one of them is really a spy for the dark wizard in their world," Remus asked quietly as they all stood up to go back to the castle.

"If the Dumbledore in their world is as smart as our own, then yes," Sirius replied after a moment of thought.

"I wonder which one it is," Peter asked.

"I vote for Remus," Sirius said.

"Why me?" Remus asked. "I mean the other me…but why?"

"Because he's the biggest git," James supplied.

"Yeah, that too," Sirius agreed. "Besides can you really see Lillian as a spy?"

"Why not?" Peter asked. "No one would ever suspect her."

"With good reason," Sirius snorted. "She's not got half the brains of our Lily."

"Even if you discount her, what about the other you?" Remus pressed on.

"The other me can't be a spy," Sirius replied with a shake of his head.

"Why not?" Remus asked again.

"Because it's me."

"That's got to be the most ridiculous reason I've ever heard," Remus replied. "What's it going to take for you to realise that they aren't us? They're nothing like us and any one of them could be a spy for the dark wizard in their own world."

"You just don't want to think it might be the other you," Sirius accused, his voice rising.

"Er…" James started as Sirius and Remus stood nose to nose. It had been unnerving seeing them in that particular position whenever they were about to kiss. Now however it was far more unnerving to see them nose to nose but arguing instead.

"It's far more likely to be the other Sirius," Remus pointed out, his voice rising to an even higher volume than Sirius's. "Remus's parents have just been killed by the dark wizard's werewolves. What possible reason could he have for joining him after that?"

"It could be a cover. They could still be alive."

"And Sirius's nice and friendly approach could be an act as well. He could have asked for our help when I offered. He's the one that's given us the most information about their world but we have no idea if it's actually true."

"Why wouldn't it be true? I'm usually truthful."

"Truthful? You?" Remus snorted. "Don't even open that can of worms. And didn't I just remind you that the other Sirius _isn't_ you?"

"What do you mean about me not being truthful?" Sirius asked, his voice going lower and noticeably colder.

"Just leave it."

"No! I want to know what you meant."

"Just that you're not exactly known for being truthful," Remus finally replied.

"That's not fair Moony," Peter whispered. He and James were standing together near the shack's tunnel entrance, looking for all the world like they were ready to make a bolt for it if fists started flying.

"Peter's right," James added.

"Besides, you've told just as many lies as the rest of us," Sirius snapped.

"You lie every other day about one thing or another. 'Sorry Professor McGonagall I accidentally transfigured my homework into a quill and someone borrowed it and lost it'." Remus's impression of Sirius, had it been done under any other circumstances, would have been amusing enough to have the other boys rolling around laughing, Sirius included. But the time for jokes had long since passed.

"If we're counting up how many lies we've all told then I hate to burst your little bubble Moony, but you are right up there with the rest of us," Sirius shouted. "'My grandmother's ill…I've had to go visit her…there was an emergency at home'…"

"That was different," Remus yelled back. "You can't even compare that to the number of lies you come out with every day."

"Remus is right," James interrupted. "Those lies were necessary."

"Thanks for sticking up for _me_ James," Sirius snapped. "I guess I know who your best friend is these days."

"You know you're my best friend," James replied in a calm voice.

"Then why don't you start acting like it instead of taking sides against me?"

"Because that last dig was low, too low."

"I suppose you think the other Sirius is the spy too?" Sirius asked with a sneer. "He's a Black so he has to be one of the bad guys. I suppose if it were happening in this world I'd be top of your list of suspects too."

"Don't be stupid."

"And I wish everyone would stop calling me stupid," Sirius yelled glaring at Remus as he said it.

"I never called you stupid," Remus pointed out and Sirius remembered that it had been the other Remus who'd been criticising his intelligence. A part of Sirius knew that if he hadn't been so angry already he'd have apologised instead of storming out of the shrieking shack. But he was in a rare temper and an apology was far from forthcoming.

The tension remained with the rest of the boys throughout the rest of the day. Random students in the Great Hall at dinner were commenting that Sirius and Remus were arguing and Charlene had made it clear to Sirius that a lover's tiff would not excuse him from the early morning Quidditch practice the following morning.

Back in the dorm Remus went to the bed they'd been sharing, gathered Sirius's things together and unceremoniously dumped them on the spare bed.

"Didn't want to sleep with you tonight anyway," Sirius snarled when returned from the bathroom. He stalked over to the bed with his things on, mumbling under his breath.

"What was that?" Remus asked, sure that the mumbling had been something uncomplimentary about himself.

"Nothing."

"Oh no you don't," Remus warned. "I want to know what you're mumbling about me."

"Well if you really want to know," Sirius sneered. "I was just wondering to myself how a werewolf, who must have a high pain threshold anyway, can be scared of having sex with another bloke."

Remus gasped and blinked several times. He looked at the boy standing in front of him as though he'd never seen him before. "I was waiting because of you," he finally hissed through his clenched teeth. "Though I'm sure I don't know why!" Then he turned his back on Sirius and climbed into bed.

Sirius stood mutely for a minute or two until the other Remus and Sirius walked into the dorm and startled him. Ignoring the two of them he walked to his new bed and climbed in, already missing Moony's warmth but too stubborn to do anything about it.


	7. Dognapped

Chapter 7

The tension caused by the two stubborn boys continued for the next two days, neither Remus nor Sirius was prepared to make the first move to repair their relationship. Eventually James and Peter realised that it was going to be up to the two of them to nudge their friends back together.

"James, could you please ask Black to pass the jam over?" asked Remus as he grabbed a slice of toast from the platter in the centre of the table.

James looked back at him carefully before calming answering. "No."

"W-what?" Remus spluttered. "I thought you weren't taking sides in this?

"I'm not," James replied as he poured himself some pumpkin juice. "If you want _Sirius_ to pass you the jam then ask him yourself."

"Ahem," Peter coughed and nodded towards Sirius.

"Oh yeah, same goes for you Sirius. Peter and I have decided we've had enough of this 'ask Lupin if he wrote down the homework in Transfiguration', 'tell Black he should take his own notes' morning, noon and night."

"He started it," Sirius muttered.

"Could you be any more childish?" Remus asked with a glare across the table.

"When I said you should start speaking again, that wasn't what I had in mind," James pointed out.

"James is right," Lily piped up from the other side of Sirius. Remus looked at her in surprise as she nudged Sirius and looked pointedly at the jar of jam.

"Whatever," Sirius muttered as he carelessly slid the jam across to Remus who was taken by surprise and missed catching it, causing the jam to spill down the front of his shirt.

"Great Black, real mature," Remus snapped as he pulled out his wand to clean his shirt.

"Personally I think you're both acting like a couple of first years," Lily commented. "You're actually making James seem like the mature member of the group; quite an achievement that."

James looked like he wanted to respond to the underlying insult but for once in his life he managed to hold his tongue.

"It's not like they're even fighting over anything important," Peter explained to Lily.

"Not important to you," Remus muttered. "Black just can't get his head round the idea that the other him might not be trustworthy."

"You're just assuming that because he's a Black he's…"

"Oh shut it the pair of you!" Lily snapped. "I don't know how you managed to reach the conclusion that I care what you're fighting about, but you're wrong."

Remus looked surprised at her vehemence but Sirius was more than used to this side of Lily and barely batted an eyelid at her tone.

"So Lily?" James asked. "You are Lily right?"

"Would you like me to wear a badge or something?" asked Lily with false sweetness.

"Wow! What a great idea. That would be wonderful. Would you?" James replied in all seriousness.

"No, I flaming well wouldn't," Lily snapped. "And yes, I'm Lily."

James recovered himself quickly. "I have a small favour to ask of you."

"You're wasting your time," Remus interrupted.

"I can at least ask," James replied before turning back to Lily and giving her the shortened version of Sirius's undercover mission to find out what the others' mission was. This version not including, of course, the minor fact that Sirius was in his illegal animagus form at the time of his eavesdropping.

"And you want me to ask Severus what this mission is?" Lily asked coldly.

"Yep! Will you?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"You need to take your own advice for once," Lily replied. "You want to ask Severus something, ask him yourself."

"You know he won't tell me anything."

"And you know who's to blame for that!"

"He's your friend."

"_Was_."

"Well here's a chance to mend some bridges," Sirius suggested, earning him a sharp kick on the ankle from James.

"Never mind Lily, I'll go ask him," James said with a smile that only widened further at Lily's look of total utter astonishment.

"Lily," Remus coughed to clear his throat to get her attention fully. "You know that James is right about this. Snape won't tell us anything if we ask. And it is kind of urgent that we find out what they're up to."

"Not my problem," Lily replied sweetly. "I kind of like having Lillian around. It was weird at first and she can be a bit thoughtless and act a little strange, but now she's settled in, it's kind of fun."

"Fun for who?" James muttered, no doubt recalling any one of a number of occasions when he'd mistaken the two girls for each other. "Speak of the devil."

Remus looked up and saw that Lillian was indeed heading in their direction. "Great," he muttered.

"Morning Remus," Lillian chirped as she sat down beside him, just a little too close for Remus's comfort.

"Morning," he mumbled as he edged away slightly.

"Where's Snuffles this morning?"

"Dunno."

"You really should take more care of your pet," Lillian chided gently as she patted him on the knee. "Good job you've got me to help out now, isn't it?"

James glared at Remus, annoyed at seeing Lillian, looking so similar to Lily, blatantly flirting with him. Sirius was simply simmering with jealousy and looked ready to stab someone with his butter knife. Remus squirmed uncomfortably at the not entirely unfamiliar situation. In the two days since he and Sirius had argued, Lillian seemed to have made it her mission in life to flirt with Remus at every available opportunity. At first it had been merely surprising, now it was driving him completely up the wall.

"Do you want to quit manhandling my boyfriend?" Sirius snarled from across the table.

"_Ex_-boyfriend," Lillian reminded him. "So Remus, what are your plans for this evening?"

"Er…"

"We could take Snuffles for a walk down by the lake," Lillian suggested with a flirtatious wink.

James began to choke on his pumpkin juice at the idea of Remus on a date with Lillian, and Sirius tagging along as Snuffles.

"But I'm not…er…well I…"

"He's trying to remind you that he's gay," Sirius interrupted.

"Bi," Lillian corrected. "I heard from a little birdie that you haven't always liked men and that last term you were seeing Tricia from Ravenclaw."

"What?" James, Sirius, Peter and Lily squeaked.

"How did you know that?" Remus asked.

"It's true?" Sirius asked, forgetting that he wasn't supposed to be speaking to Remus.

"It was only for a few weeks back in October," Remus explained. "Her parents are pureblood fanatics who used to be in Slytherin so she wanted to keep it quiet. Me being a half blood might not have gone down too well."

"You could have told us," James complained. "Especially if _she_ knows."

"It's not like I told her," Remus replied before turning to glare at Lillian and asking again how she knew.

"Just gossip making the rounds," she replied. "But that's beside the point. Now you're back on the market again you can just forget about seeing blokes and get back into a nice normal relationship with one of us girls. Why not me?"

"Because he's not back on the market," Sirius growled.

"Says who?" Lillian asked.

"Says me," Sirius replied.

"Maybe if you let him think and speak for himself once in a while he wouldn't have dumped you."

"I've not been dumped! I'm a Black. We never get dumped. If anyone's been doing the dumping round here it's me."

"So you admit you've dumped Remus?" Lillian smirked. "So how about it honey?" she turned back to Remus with a smile. "Seven o'clock, down by the lake."

"I've got to get to Ancient Runes," Remus muttered as he bolted from the table, his breakfast unfinished.

* * *

"I take it Snape wouldn't tell you anything?" Remus asked after James had returned to the common room after dinner that evening. The green colour of his skin and the silver colour of his hair was a bit of a give-away that things had not gone that well.

"Guess we'll have to resort to Snuffles again," Peter suggested with a wicked grin at Sirius.

"I suppose that's my cue," Sirius muttered as he stalked off to the dorms, returning a few minutes later as Padfoot.

He waited for the smart remarks but none were forthcoming. Remus barely even looked at him. He contemplated leaping onto the sofa beside him to see if it prompted a reaction but unfortunately someone had beaten him to it.

"So how about that walk?" Lillian whispered into Remus's ear. Sirius's hearing as Padfoot was more than sensitive enough to pick up on it and he growled at the two of them. "Looks like Snuffles is a little jealous," Lillian giggled. "Don't you worry, baby. No one could replace my favourite doggie. Are you ready for walkies?"

"Why don't you just take Snuffles for a walk?" Remus suggested. "I've got detention anyway."

"Haven't we all?" James muttered, as he rapidly searched through his book for the counter-curse to repair his face and hair.

"Surely you've got time for a short walk?" Lillian whined.

Sirius watched as Remus began to relent. He knew that look very well, and since it normally appeared when he was pestering Remus into doing something he didn't want to, he could tell that in about thirty seconds Lillian would be steering Remus out of the portrait hole…unless he did something to stop her. It was time to get enthusiastic about the idea of 'walkies'.

* * *

Getting Lillian out of the common room without Remus wasn't too difficult and Sirius was soon trying to steer Lillian towards the Slytherin quarters in the hope that she might stop for a chat with Snape and mention the mission again.

Thankfully for Sirius, luck was on his side and as they approached the Entrance Hall Lillian let out a squeal and started tugging him in the direction of the kitchens. She tickled the pear and stepped into the kitchen with a grin.

"I thought I saw you come in here Sev," she said with a smile.

"I guess you saw right then," Snape muttered and he turned his back on her.

"Is something wrong?"

"What could possibly be wrong?" Snape replied coldly. Sirius easily picked up on the sarcasm but it appeared that Lillian was entirely oblivious to it. Somehow he suspected that he wasn't going to be finding out about the mission any time soon.

"Is it something I've done?" Lillian asked with what sounded like a sob.

"Oh nothing much," Snape snarled. "Just flirting with me and leading me on ever since you got here, and now throwing yourself at Lupin at every available opportunity."

"Oh that." Lillian laughed airily and waved her hand. "That's nothing. I'm not interested in _him_."

"Could have fooled me, not to mention the rest of the school including his idiot boyfriend."

Sirius growled.

"I just need to keep him sweet so he'll let me take Snuffles home with me."

_What?_

"What?"

"Snuffles," Lillian repeated pointing at the confused Sirius. "Lupin's got no idea how to take care of him and he'll be much better off with me. I'm just trying to keep him sweet. I thought perhaps if we were dating, he'd let me have Snuffles to remember him by when I go home. I don't care about him."

"Did anyone ever tell you that you're not logical at all?" Snape asked.

"No," Lillian replied.

"You're…you're…" Snape's voice trailed off and he shook his head mutely.

_Brainless_, Sirius supplied to himself.

"I know, it's brilliant, isn't it?" Lillian gushed. "My own little doggie will be so pleased to have a friend to play with. And Snuffles won't be lonely any more."

_I'm not lonely now._

"Can't say I'm really a dog person," Snape muttered as he glared Snuffles.

_There's a surprise!_

"Does that mean you're going to follow me home?" Lillian asked as she sidled closer to him.

"I'm still thinking about it."

"I'd choose you over Snuffles any day."

_Passed over for Snivellus? What was the world coming to?_

"It's not like there's anything left for you here. _She_ doesn't want you."

"You think I don't know that?" Snape hissed.

"You could step into the life of the other you," Lillian told him. "You'd be in Ravenclaw. You'd have me. All you have to do is cast the spell to open the doorway at noon on the day after I return home. I'll be on the other side waiting for you."

"And if the other me isn't dead after all?"

"The chances of him being alive are practically non-existent."

"About on par with the chances of finding this book you want."

"You've still not found any trace of it?"

"Not a word. It might not even exist in this world, and even if it does I don't think we're ever going to find it."

"It exists in my world."

"That doesn't mean it exists here. I've found all sorts of reports about all sorts of artefacts relating to the founders but nothing about any old spell book of Salazar Slytherin."

_A spell book?_ Sirius perked up as he realised that Snape had just told him, without meaning to of course, what it was that the others were looking for.

"Have you looked in restricted section of the library?" Lillian asked. "Maybe it's mentioned in one of the books about the founders."

"I've looked everywhere," Snape replied. "Why's it so urgent anyway?"

"According to Dumbledore, the dark wizard in our world has my world's version of the book. The spells he's using are old, ancient even, and we have no idea how to fight them. If we have your version of the book we can find the counter-curses."

"But even if the book exists here, it isn't necessarily going to contain the same spells."

"But we won't know until we find it."

"_If_ we find it," Snape corrected.

"Well Dumbledore, my Dumbledore that is, will be checking in with us again tomorrow night. It'd be nice if I had some good news for him."

"He's got rid of Black and Lupin from his world indefinitely, I'm sure that's good enough news for anyone," Snape muttered.

"The Sev in my world was actually friends with them," Lillian said with a smile. "Very good friends in fact."

"Well don't expect me to take over that aspect of your Sev's life," Snape muttered.

"So what part of his life _would_ you be willing to take over?" Lillian asked as she drew closer to him.

Sirius closed his eyes and blindly bolted for the door before he saw more than he thought his stomach could handle.

* * *

"We have to stop him," Remus said after Sirius had finished reporting back on his latest bit of spying.

"Why?" James asked. "Snape leaves with the others and we never have to lay eyes on him again…what's so bad about that?"

"He doesn't belong there," Remus pointed out as Peter and Sirius nodded their agreement with James.

"It's not like he fits in round here either," James replied with a shrug. "He'll probably be happier there with Lillian. Leaving Lily for me, of course."

"In your dreams," Peter laughed.

"The two Dumbledores will probably make him come back anyway," Sirius muttered. "Unless he can pass himself off as the other one, which is highly doubtful."

"I'll bet he could actually," Remus replied quietly. "Snape can be quite the actor when it suits him. He's as good as you at looking innocent when he's just done something he shouldn't have."

"Oh great, back on that again are we?" Sirius muttered.

"I'm not back on anything," Remus snapped. "You're just being paranoid."

"If you two don't kiss and make up soon, I'm going to lock you in the nearest broom cupboard," Peter warned them with a glare.

"You wouldn't dare," Sirius replied calmly.

"Maybe_ he_ wouldn't, but _I_ would," James glared at him. "I'd leave you there as long as it took too."

"Just leave it James," Remus advised. "It's quite clear that Black is looking for any excuse to call things off with me. This is the longest relationship he's ever been in, so naturally he's now about ready to bolt."

"That's not true!"

"Looks like it to me."

"I don't want to call things off. I just want…"

"What? Me to stroke your ego every waking minute by agreeing with every idiotic thing you say?"

"No! I just…" Sirius's voice trailed off as he pulled Remus towards him and kissed him soundly on the lips.

Remus could do nothing but respond to the possessive kiss and he wrapped his arms around Sirius's neck.

"Er…guys?" James was ignored completely. "I blame you Wormtail."

"Me?"

"You're the one that told them to 'kiss and make up'."

Finally the two boys broke apart, smiling shyly at each other and completely oblivious to the other two boys.

"That parcel I was waiting for came yesterday," Remus whispered with a mischievous grin.

Sirius grinned back. "Room of requirement in ten minutes?"

"Five?"

James turned to Peter after Sirius and Remus had disappeared from the shrieking shack without another word. "Guess things are back to normal then?"

"I guess. Want a game of exploding snap?"

"Sure," James replied as they made their way back to the common room, both consciously trying to push various disturbing images of their two best friends from their minds.

"So do you think they're actually going to do it?"

"I think we're better off not knowing," James replied with a shudder.

* * *

Sirius, once again undercover as Snuffles, was sitting in the headmaster's office, this time eavesdropping on the meeting between the three doubles and their own headmaster. Unfortunately his mind was far from on the current conversation and kept drifting back to the previous night with Remus. As such he missed the conversation turning towards the topic of himself.

"He's practically a stray," Lillian said as she knelt on the floor beside him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Ill-treated by his owner and with no one to love him."

"We don't normally allow dogs into the school," the other Dumbledore explained. "They tend to disrupt the cats."

"He won't chase them, he never chases them here," Lillian promised.

_What? Wait a minute? Did I miss something?_

"You're sure he doesn't have an owner here?" Dumbledore asked. "There's no one who might miss him if he should vanish from this world?"

_They're going home?_

"No one." Lillian shook her head vehemently.

_But they've not found the book? Why are they leaving? What did I miss?_

Sirius looked towards his other self and the other Remus, hoping one of them would point out that he belonged to Moony. Neither of them was saying anything. It looked like it was up to him to save himself and he bolted for the door. He got about three paces when he realised that he'd been so inattentive that he hadn't even noticed Lillian putting the choker chain back on him again.

"He doesn't seem very eager to leave with you," Dumbledore said gently.

"I'm sure he's just nervous about seeing something new," replied Lillian and she waved her hand at the bubble doorway that separated the two worlds.

"Possibly," Dumbledore said slowly.

Sirius tried to tug backwards again, wondering if it would be worth the amount of trouble he would get into if he just transfigured himself back into his human form. Thoughts of expulsion and Azkaban flitted through his mind in rapid succession and he knew that he couldn't risk it.

"Come on Snuffles," Lillian said cheerfully. "We're going home."

_Oh crap!_ Sirius struggled as much as he could but soon found himself tugged through the doorway between worlds.

_I'm being dog-napped_ he tried to silently convey to anyone who might listen. Then the portal closed and he knew he was in deep, deep trouble.

* * *

"They've gone home?" James asked with a delighted grin. "You mean it's over? They're gone for good?"

"There's no need to sound quite so pleased about it," Professor McGonagall chided. "Hogwarts, their Hogwarts, is still in grave danger. Their Dumbledore has been removed from his post as headmaster and as such it was thought best to recall the three of them in case they found themselves trapped here permanently. They left a short while ago with their belongings and pets."

"Pets?" Peter asked. "They didn't bring any pets."

"Lillian apparently adopted a dog whilst she was here," McGonagall explained. "She has taken him home with her."

"Not Snuffles?" Remus squeaked.

"I believe that was the animal's name," McGonagall replied after a moment of thought.

"No!" Remus yelled.

"Mr Lupin, control yourself!"

"But she can't take Snuffles. He's…"

"You know the animal?"

"He's…" Remus looked at James and Peter for help but they were even more speechless than he was. He couldn't own up to owning Snuffles to McGonagall. She knew very well who had what pet in Gryffindor house and was well aware that Remus didn't own a dog. And telling her that Snuffles was actually Sirius was equally out of the question. They'd all be expelled for sure if the truth ever came out.

"Did Snuffles have an owner?"

Remus shook his head. "Not really," he whispered.

"I'm sure he'll be well cared for now," McGonagall said with a smile.

Remus nodded dumbly as McGonagall left the dormitory and the three stunned boys.

"Maybe she found another dog to take home?" Peter suggested weakly.

"Then where's Sirius?" Remus asked.

For several minutes the three boys sat looking at each other in silence.

"Maybe we should tell Dumbledore?" Remus finally suggested.

"We'll be expelled," James whispered. "Not to mention illegal animagi are thrown into Azkaban."

"And werewolves who don't take the proper precautions are executed," Remus whispered back.

"We're so screwed," Peter muttered. "How long do you think it'll be until the teachers notice that Sirius is missing?"

"He has free periods tomorrow morning," Remus said without hesitation. "But we've all got Transfiguration right after lunch and McGonagall will be sure to spot if he's missing."

"Wormtail's right," James said dejectedly. "We're screwed."

"Completely."

"Totally."

"Utterly."


	8. Found and Lost

Chapter 8

"There's nothing in this stupid book," James complained as he threw the book he'd got for Christmas across the room.

"I told you that before you went to nick it back from McGonagall's room," Remus pointed out with a frustrated sigh. "If the answer to opening the doorway was in there we'd have found it when our doubles first got stuck here."

"Dumbledore managed to open the doorway, or at least get a message through to his double so that they could perform the spell," James stated, as though neither of the other two boys had been in the room at the time and seen this for themselves.

"Dumbledore knew what to do without a book," Peter muttered. "There has to be a way to get that doorway open."

"Maybe we should try doing the spell here and hope Sirius is doing it on the other end?" James suggested.

Remus shrugged. He doubted it would work but at this stage anything was worth a try. Thirty minutes later and it was clear that Sirius wasn't activating the spell in the other world, or if he was, he wasn't in the same place they were.

"Maybe we should try again later, after everyone's gone to bed, say in the common room," Peter suggested. "Sirius wouldn't risk being seen and he'd have to nick a wand after someone had gone to sleep." He pointed to the bedside table where Sirius's own wand had been carelessly thrown just before he'd transformed into Padfoot.

By two o'clock in the morning they'd given up on the idea of performing the spell over and over. Even taking it in turns, it was draining and there was no way of even knowing if Sirius was on the other side trying to get home.

James and Peter had both nodded off to sleep on the sofa in the common room when Remus suddenly realised that they had the answer to getting Sirius back already.

"Snape!" he shouted, waking the other two boys as he did so.

"Wassat! Where?" James sprang up from the sofa, wand in hand and drool on his chin, ready to fight off the attack he seemed to think was imminent.

"Not in here," Remus assured him, waving him back down to his seat.

"Crikey Moony, don't do that!" James scowled at him as he rubbed his eyes and yawned. "I thought he'd infiltrated Gryffindor Tower with you yelling like that."

"Don't be stupid," Remus muttered. "I meant that Snape has the information we need."

"He does?" Peter asked with a yawn.

"According to Sirius, Lillian had asked Snape to follow her into her world at noon the day after she left. We just need to check the spell is the same one and find out where he's been told to cast it. Then when the door opens Sirius will be there ready to jump back through. He'll be sticking to Lillian like glue, waiting for her and Snape to open the doorway."

"So we just need to follow Snape and wait." James grinned and clapped his hands together enthusiastically.

"Except if Snape has decided not to go, Sirius will be stuck there," Peter pointed out.

"Which is why I'm going to be having a chat with Snape first thing in the morning," Remus stated firmly.

"He won't tell you anything," James pointed out.

"Yes he will," Remus replied coldly. "I won't give him any other choice."

* * *

_So this is what the girls' dorms look like._ Sirius followed Lillian obediently into the girls' dormitory. Not that he had a great deal of choice in the matter, not while he had the choker chain on anyway.

"Oh my god, it's the Grim!" a girl Sirius didn't recognise screamed. Sirius made a mental note to have a bit of fun scaring her if he had the chance before he went home.

"This is Snuffles," Lillian stated proudly as she closed the door behind them and transfigured a nearby rug into a dog bed.

Once the two girls in the room had welcomed Lillian back again the conversation turned back to Snuffles.

"He's a big mangy isn't he?" the screamer commented as she edged further away from him. "He doesn't have fleas does he?"

Sirius growled. _See if you're going to get any sleep tonight._

"Does McGonagall know you've brought a dog back with you?" another girl, Penny, if she shared the same name as her counterpart, asked.

"Yes, she says he has to stay at home after this term but he can stay until the term ends."

"So you're back here for good now?"

"I guess."

"What was it like there?"

"Weird," Lillian replied after a moment of thought. "The other me was a right nightmare most of the time but I knew how to keep her sweet. The kids in the other world are mostly pretty stupid."

_I don't see any teenage animagi round here_, Sirius growled to himself again. _Seems to me like you're the stupid ones. Can't even recognise a wizard when you see one._

"No cute guys then?" Penny asked.

"None that were available. The best looking ones were either seeing someone already or gay." The screwed up her face at this last comment, her expression one of frank distaste. "They were really open about it too."

"Really?" Penny asked eagerly.

"Holding hands in the corridors, snogging in the common room, practically making out at the breakfast table."

"Wish I'd seen it," Penny said dreamily.

"It'd put you off your food for the rest of the day," Lillian muttered. "Do you want me to tell you who the couple were?" She grinned widely as Penny and the other girl nodded eagerly.

"Sirius Black and Remus Lupin."

"You don't mean our…?"

"No!" Lillian shook her head. "The ones from the other world."

"I've always thought Sirius was gay anyway," Penny chuckled. "He dresses too well to be straight."

"So any other gossip?" the other girl asked.

"Er…" Lillian looked thoughtful. "The other Remus is a werewolf. Though most of the school don't know about it."

"Really?"

"They let a werewolf into a school?"

"That world is totally mad," Lillian explained. "The Dumbledore there is even more of a nutter than ours is."

Sirius yawned and crawled into the dog bed. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

"Snape!" James called out as he spotted the black-haired boy crossing the Entrance Hall, with the rest of the Slytherins who were heading to breakfast. Snape stopped and turned to look at him curiously. Remus guessed he was probably surprised at actually being addressed by his name instead of Snivellus. He had warned James earlier that if they were going to get Snape's help he had to at least make an effort to be polite.

"Potter, Lupin," Snape sneered as Remus and James approached him.

"We need to talk to you," Remus said as he pointed down one of the still deserted corridors.

"Tough," Snape replied and he turned away.

"That wasn't a request," Remus hissed as he grabbed Snape's arm and pulled him in the direction he wanted him to go.

"Er, Remus?" James whispered as he hurried to keep up. "I thought your plan was to ask politely?"

"It is."

"It is?" Snape echoed as he tried to release his arm from Remus's iron grip.

"In here," Remus ordered as they reached the first empty classroom.

"So what's this about?" Snape asked in a thoroughly disinterested tone.

"We need to know where and how you're going to open the portal to Lillian's world," Remus stated. "And you're going to tell us."

"And why would I do that?"

"Because if you don't I'll make sure you get a front row seat in the Shrieking Shack next full moon," Remus hissed.

"Remus!" James gasped in horror.

"You'd be expelled," Snape sneered back. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to get some breakfast before classes start, even if you two don't."

Snape moved to walk past them and out of the door but Remus stopped him by grabbing his arm again. "You _are_ going to help us. Don't make me hex you!"

"You wouldn't dare. You're a prefect and it's not your style. You just sit back and let the others do the dirty work instead."

Remus pulled out his wand and pointed it at Snape's nose. "Lillian's instructions. What are they?"

Snape hesitated but didn't reply.

"Last chance Snape," James said as he too drew out his wand and pointed it at Snape. Snape might not have believed Remus's threats but he knew that James was a whole other kettle of fish.

"The old fairy ring in the clearing where Care of Magical Creatures classes take place in the forbidden forest," Snape replied. "She said to face east and she'd be in the ring facing west at noon."

"And the spell?" James asked coldly.

Snape reached into his pocket and James and Remus raised their wands ever so slightly again case he tried anything sneaky. But instead of pulling out his wand, he pulled out a worn sheet of paper that looked as though it had been folded and unfolded many times. He started to pass it across to Remus who reached out for it, only to have it pulled back at the last second. "So why do you want this so desperately?" he asked silkily. "And where are Black and Pettigrew?"

"Doing homework," Remus lied, knowing that Peter was in fact sneaking James's confiscated book back into McGonagall's office and Sirius was doing goodness knows what in a parallel world. Though knowing Sirius he was probably the only one of the quartet who was actually getting breakfast.

"And you want this little bit of paper because…?"

"Because that thieving little cow stole something of ours and we want it back," Remus said as he snatched the paper out of Snape's hand and opened it up.

"That's the same spell we used," James confirmed as he looked at the paper over Remus's shoulder. Remus merely breathed a sigh of relief and passed the paper back to Snape. Now that they knew it was the same spell they'd copied out of James's book there was no real need to keep the paper. The important information they'd been missing was the location, which Snape had now provided them with.

* * *

"All sorted?" James whispered to Peter as they joined him in the Great Hall.

"Book back in McGonagall's office and your cloak is back in your trunk," Peter confirmed. "How about you guys?"

"The fairy ring in the clearing," Remus whispered. "They're using the same spell. We just need to be there at noon to make sure that Sirius comes back."

"What if he's not there though?" James asked quietly.

"Then we go to the backup plan," Remus whispered.

"And that would be?"

"We go get him ourselves."

* * *

"So do you think he's going to try to go after Lillian?" James asked as they made their way towards the Forbidden Forest, keeping an eye out for teachers who might wonder why they were all skipping classes that morning. Unfortunately only Sirius had been lucky enough to have free periods that particular morning.

"Dunno," Peter replied as they hurried to the appointed location ready for the midday meeting.

"Well he's not here yet," Remus said as they hurried into the clearing and found the fairy ring.

"Wonder why she chose this spot," James wondered idly as he checked his watch to see if it was noon yet.

"Who cares?" Peter replied. "At least it was easy to find."

"She chose it because she thinks fairy rings are romantic," Snape said as he stepped into the clearing.

James snorted with contempt.

"So are you going to do the spell or am I?" Snape asked.

"Peter's going to do the spell," Remus announced authoritatively.

"I am?" Peter squeaked.

"Yes, in case we need to resort to Plan B, remember?"

Peter suddenly remembered the details of that plan and nodded seriously.

"So are you really going to leave and go through to the other world?" James asked Snape curiously.

"Why not?" Snape replied with a shrug.

"We can't let you do that," Remus whispered.

"What do you mean?" Snape asked.

"_Petrificus totalus!_" Remus called out as he pointed his wand at Snape and watched him fall down to the ground as the full body bind took effect.

"What did you do that for?" James asked. "We'd finally be shot of him."

"Because he doesn't belong in that world any more than they belong in ours."

"But he'd be gone for good."

"He'd probably be sent back anyway," Peter pointed out, clearly disappointed at the thought.

"It's noon," Remus said, putting an end to the discussion. He waved Peter into position and stood back as the spell immediately began to work and the now familiar bubble appeared, expanding until it became the doorway between their two worlds. As the image in the bubble cleared they could see Lillian standing in the forest looking back at them in surprise and annoyance.

"I don't see him," James whispered. "Plan B?"

"Plan B," Remus confirmed with a nod to the other two boys. "If the portal closes after we go through, give us an hour and then do the spell again," he told Peter. "If it doesn't work then it means we've got delayed somehow so try again, right here every day at noon."

"You'd better be back for afternoon classes," Peter warned them. "I don't fancy trying to explain to McGonagall where the rest of you are."

"You'll think of something," James assured him with a grin.

"Like what?"

"Er…"

"See? You can't even think of a good enough excuse!" Peter threw his hands in the air in exasperation.

"Only tell her the truth if you have to," Remus asked. "Tomorrow's Friday. Give us until Monday morning at least. No one will be missing us over the weekend. It's just today and tomorrow and it's not like you all don't skip Friday afternoon Divination anyway."

"What about Snape?"

"Just leave him there," James muttered and moved to give him a subtle kick on his way past.

"We really don't have time for that," Remus said as he pulled James towards the doorway and into the parallel world.

"I don't see him," said James, as he looked round the clearing frantically. The portal, as expected closed behind them almost as soon as they'd stepped through.

"Where is he?" Remus glared at Lillian.

"Where's who?" she asked with wide-eyed innocence.

"Snuffles!" Remus snapped.

"Finders keepers," Lillian smirked. "Where's Severus?"

"Taking a nap," Remus snarled. "Does the map work here?" he asked James.

"One way to find out," James replied as he pulled out the marauders' map and activated it. "Like a charm," he grinned.

"Looks like he's in Gryffindor Tower," Remus said as he pointed to the little dot marked 'Sirius Black' in the common room. Carefully, so that Lillian couldn't see his action, James casually pointed to the second dot bearing Sirius's name that was on a higher floor in the tower with the other Remus Lupin.

"That one I think," James said, pointing to the common room.

"Let's go get him." Remus took off through the trees, James hot on his heels. "Maybe you should wait here or put the cloak on," he suggested when they reached the edge of the forest.

"I kind of like the idea of being a 'ghost'," James grinned back.

"Except you're not a ghost," Remus pointed out.

"I should probably keep an eye on Lillian anyway," James said as he cast a leering glance back into the trees. "And at least I can't mistake her for Lily here, since there's only one of them."

Remus rolled his eyes and took the map from James. "I'll be back soon," he promised. "With our Snuffles."

James grinned and disappeared back into the trees leaving Remus to hurry towards the familiar castle where it appeared classes had just been let out for the morning. Remus eased his way through the crowd, nodding and responding to greetings as familiar and unfamiliar students called out to him.

He reached the portrait hole with the familiar Fat Lady sitting in residence. "Bonus dies,"(1) he said and waited for the portrait hole to open.

"Wrong password," the Fat Lady replied with a frown at him.

"It's changed since this morning?" Remus asked with surprise. "But you never change the password mid-week?"

"The password is the same one it's been since Monday morning," the Fat Lady replied with another frown.

"Trouble getting inside?" a familiar voice asked and Remus spun round to see Professor McGonagall standing behind him. "You're forgetting that our passwords are different to the world you've been a guest in these last few weeks."

Remus ducked his head and hoped that the sharp-eyed professor didn't notice that she was speaking to a different Remus. Thankfully she was in a rush and after letting him into the common room she hurried on her way.

The common room was empty when Remus stepped through the hole…empty that is, except for a large black dog currently chained up near the fireplace. It appeared that Lillian had anticipated that Snuffles might try to return through the portal and had decided to take no chances.

Padfoot let out a bark of joy and Remus hurried across to him, throwing his arms around his neck and sobbing with relief that nothing too dreadful had happened to him. "_Alohomora_," he said as he pointed his wand at the lock. It opened instantly and Padfoot pulled his neck out of the metal collar and leapt at Remus.

"Missed me, did you?" Remus asked with a grin as Sirius reappeared hovering over him.

"You have no idea," Sirius replied as he lowered his head to kiss him.

"I'll take that as a yes then," Remus laughed. "But you'd better change back into Padfoot until we get back home."

Sirius pouted slightly at the idea, and Remus could tell that he'd had more than enough of being Padfoot for the time being.

"Just until we're safe back in our world," Remus said. "Unless you want to stay here of course."

"Don't even joke about it," Sirius muttered. "If I hear the name Snuffles one more time I think I may bite someone." Then he planted one more quick kiss on Remus's lips and changed back into Padfoot.

"Come on then Snuffles," Remus grinned. "James is waiting for us near the edge of the forest."

Sirius looked back at him with a glare that even his canine features couldn't hide.

"For the love of…" Remus muttered. "Fine, come on Padfoot. That better for you?"

Padfoot barked and began to follow after him.

"Padfoot?" a familiar voice, and one that neither boy wanted to hear, asked. Remus turned to face his other self who was standing at the foot of the stairs, Sirius's double on the stair behind him. "I thought the dog's name was Snuffles?"

"The dog's Sirius, you idiot," the other Sirius snapped as he pushed past his friend. "He's an animagus."

"How…?" Remus asked before remembering that there was still a chance he could have bluffed his way out of things.

"How did I know?" Sirius asked. "Because he curls up beside you the same way whichever form he's in, and you look at him the same way no matter whether he's in his human form or this one. It wasn't hard to figure out."

"Nice of you tell the rest of us," the other Remus muttered.

"Not to mention not letting Dumbledore know when Lillian decided to steal him," Remus muttered. "Thanks a lot."

"I knew you'd come and get him," Sirius replied with a shrug. "And I thought maybe that his coming here was part of his spying plan."

"The way he was struggling to avoid it?" the other Remus asked.

"It could have been a show put on for the teachers."

"And Prongs and Wormtail?"

Remus looked down at Padfoot who shrugged and turned back into Sirius once more. "Prongs is a stag and Wormtail's a rat," Sirius supplied.

"The rat Lillian was screaming over that day in the library?" the other Remus asked.

"Afraid so," Remus replied.

"I take it you're not registered?" the other Remus asked with a sly grin.

"Where's the fun in that?" Sirius asked.

"Well," Remus said as he stepped towards the entrance once more. "Great though this chat has been, we really have to get going now."

"You don't want to stick around for a while?" the other Sirius asked hopefully.

"We need to get back before we're missed," Remus replied as he looked pointedly at Sirius, silently trying to prompt him into turning back into Padfoot. Eventually he took the hint and the two of them hurried down the staircases and out into the grounds.

"James?" Remus called as they approached the edge of the trees. He was nowhere in sight and didn't come to his call. "I guess he's nearer the clearing," he said as he led Padfoot into the forest.

Unfortunately the clearing was empty and there was no sign of either James or Lillian.

"James?" Remus called again as he circled the clearing, becoming more and more worried when no reply came.

"I think he's in trouble," Sirius said. Remus turned to see that Sirius was once again in his human form and was holding James's invisibility cloak.

"He wouldn't leave that lying around," Remus whispered. "It's his most prized possession."

"They can't have gone far," Sirius reasoned. "Check the map and see if they're back at the school. Perhaps James came looking for us."

Remus took out the marauders' map but there was no sign of James or Lillian anywhere in the castle or on the grounds. "The map doesn't cover all the forest," Remus complained. "I'd say it doesn't go much more than a hundred yards further than the clearing."

"Guess we've got a bit of walking to do then," Sirius said with a sigh. "Though at least this walk doesn't involve a choker chain and it's not raining."

"You know something," Remus mused about an hour later.

"I know many things," Sirius joked.

Remus ignored his comment. "I think we were both wrong."

"You think Lillian's working for this world's dark wizard?" Sirius asked and Remus nodded, confirming that the thought had crossed his mind too.

"That or she's some sort of teenage black widow," Remus replied with a grin. "Her James ends up dead, her Severus ends up missing. She tries to get our Severus to join her here and then when James come through he goes missing too."

"Aren't you just so relieved you've got me instead of some crazy bird?" Sirius asked as he slung his arm round Remus's shoulders.

"Oh yeah," Remus drawled. "Because you're just no trouble at all."

* * *

"I'm hungry," Sirius whined after another three hours of wandering back and forth through the forest.

"It's nearly dinner time," Remus replied. "We should have opened the portal at one to let Wormtail know what had happened."

"We'll have to let him know tomorrow," Sirius said as he poked at some strange looking plants in the hope they might be edible.

"I wonder how many detentions we'll get for this."

"They'll be so pleased to have us back they won't give us any," Sirius replied with a grin.

"It must be nice living in your world," Remus mused.

"Oh it is. No detentions or homework, all the chocolate you can…Remus!" Sirius watched as Remus fell to his knees and let out a piercing scream of pain. "What is it? What's happening?"

"The full moon!" Remus choked out.

"But it's not for another week!"

"Different world. It must have a different lunar cycle."

"We've got to get you to the shrieking shack," Sirius said as he judged how long it was before the moon had risen completely and the wolf took over.

"No shack!"

"But I can't control you on my own. We need Prongs too."

"No shack!"

Finally the meaning behind Remus's words registered. "Hell! It's not been built because there's no werewolf at this Hogwarts."

"Don't. Let me. Hurt. Anyone," Remus pleaded.

"But you can't transform," Sirius whispered. "You said that your body prepares itself for the transformation during the two days up to the full moon. You haven't…you can't."

"I'll change anyway," Remus whispered. "It'll just hurt more. Don't let me hurt anyone. Promise me!"

"I promise," Sirius whispered. "I won't leave you."

* * *

(1) Good day in Latin


	9. After the Full Moon

Chapter 9

Sirius was thoroughly exhausted. There was simply no other word to describe him when he woke up the following morning. For an all too brief moment he wondered where he was. The smells around him were strange. There was no smell of wood smoke from the dormitory fireplace; no smell of clean laundry delivered by the house elves early in the morning before most of the students had stirred from their slumbers. Instead he could smell trees and grass and open air. There was something digging into his back and he shifted slightly, trying to find a more comfortable position. He heard a moan as he moved and for a second he thought he'd made the sound himself.

Then he remembered.

The other world he was now in and the unexpected full moon the night before.

He turned his head slowly to the right and breathed in a familiar scent.

Remus.

Memories flooded back to him and he recalled the exhausting night he'd spent keeping Remus under control as they roamed the forest. He'd never truly realised how much James, the largest of them in their animagus forms, helped to keep the wolf from escaping.

"Remus?" Sirius whispered.

"Wha?" Remus murmured sleepily.

"You okay?"

Remus groaned as he tried to sit up.

"Bloody hell!" Sirius swore when he saw the new wounds Remus had accrued the night before.

"It's going to need sealing," Remus hissed as he tried to stem the flow of blood from the largest gash that stretched down the right side of his chest. "I think I need Madam Pomfrey."

"Only one problem with that," Sirius muttered and saw the moment Remus remembered where they were.

"Did I hurt anyone?" a worried Remus asked.

"No," Sirius assured him, wanting to hug him in assurance but wary of aggravating the wounds. "But I missed Prongs last night."

"This was why I insisted he come instead of Peter," Remus muttered. "Just in case we got stuck here for the full moon looking for you. He's always been best at controlling me."

"I thought I did an okay job," Sirius replied with a flush of embarrassment.

"You did great." Remus managed to summon up a small smile. "You single-handedly stopped a werewolf from causing havoc. But I bet you know about it this morning, right?"

"Oh yeah," Sirius replied with a yawn. "You kept wanting to go in the direction of Hogsmeade. Any ideas why?"

"Maybe I was just trying to get back to the shack. The wolf probably doesn't understand about it not being there. That or it was just sensing people."

"I wondered if perhaps it was sensing James," Sirius suggested quietly. "Back home I've never known the wolf be that determined to get to the village."

"It's worth checking out," Remus agreed. "But first I need to get cleaned up. Are you up for sneaking supplies out of the hospital wing?"

"You know me," Sirius grinned. "I'm always up for anything."

"By the time we get back to the school the first classes will have started," Remus speculated quietly. "You think anyone would notice if we snuck into Gryffindor Tower?"

"We've got the map and the cloak," Sirius reminded him. "And we _are_ marauders!"

* * *

Remus's timing was pretty accurate and the first classes were underway when they arrived back at the castle. Unfortunately any hope of a deserted Gryffindor Tower was shot down in flames when they arrived in the common room and checked the map again.

"The other you is heading this way," Sirius muttered as he struggled to help the increasingly weak Remus up the stairs to the boys' dormitory.

"I can manage," Remus insisted as the spiral staircase narrowed too much for them to climb the stairs side by side.

"You first," Sirius replied, wanting to be ready to catch the other boy if he found he couldn't make it on his own after all. "Pity I can only get into the girls' dorms as Padfoot. They don't have as many stairs to climb."

"Do I want to know what you were doing in the girls' dorm?" Remus wheezed.

"Pining for you of course," Sirius said as he reached out to steady Remus, who was swaying dangerously.

Finally they made it to the dorm and Remus collapsed onto the nearest bed. Sirius looked at the neat stack of books on the bedside table and guessed that this was his counterpart's bed.

"Looks like Remus is down in the common room with Charlene," Sirius said as he checked the map again.

"As long as he doesn't come up here."

"They aren't moving or anything. They're probably discussing Quidditch or something. Remus said he was on the team and I can't imagine a world where Charlie doesn't think about the game for every waking minute."

"I don't think we can wait for them to clear off," Remus muttered as he looked at his still bleeding chest and tightened the makeshift bandage.

"I'll take Prongs's cloak and get some supplies from the hospital wing."

"Do you know what you're getting?"

"I think so," Sirius replied. They'd gone through it several times on the walk from the depths of the forest to the castle. He knew the names but hoped that the bottles were carefully labelled.

"Take the map too," Remus said as he held it out to him.

"No." Sirius shook his head. "You keep an eye on it and hide in the bathroom if you see anyone approaching this way. You'll need the extra time the map will give you, the state you're in."

Remus nodded reluctantly and after checking the bandage a final time, Sirius ducked out of the door and crept down to the common room.

The other Remus and Charlene were standing in the middle of the room, and Sirius suspected that they would have been oblivious to his presence even without the protection he had from the invisibility cloak.

"Why can't you just leave it?" Charlene yelled, poking a finger at Remus.

"Because you're lying and I want to know why!" Remus shouted back.

"I had to go home for a few days. It's not my fault I wasn't here when you finally decided to come back from wherever the heck you'd disappeared to!"

"I didn't say it was, but why won't you just tell me what the big emergency was?"

"It's over, it doesn't matter now. I'm tired and I'm going to get some sleep." Charlene sighed tiredly and moved towards the stairs to the girls' dormitories. Sirius wondered if that was going to be the end of their argument and moved towards the portrait hole again, hoping that with both their backs to the entrance, neither of them would notice him slipping out of the room. He moved as stealthily as he could but even in the midst of the argument it seemed that Remus could sense his presence in the room.

It was still disconcerting to find that their counterparts were as adept at sensing an invisible presence as they were themselves.

The other Remus frowned in his direction but Charlene, oblivious to the third person in the room continued on her way and Remus eventually turned away from where Sirius was standing and followed her up the stairs.

"Looks like the professors are more trusting in this world," Sirius muttered when the stairs didn't turn into a slide. He'd assumed that he had been able to go up them as Padfoot because at the time he was technically a dog, rather than a boy. It seemed that he was wrong. But he had no time to ponder the trivial difference, instead he slipped out of the portrait hole and sprinted towards the hospital wing.

He navigated the corridors with an expertise that came from years of sneaking around the castle. The building at least was the same as the one that he'd lived in for the last five and a half years. Though there was a close call on one of the staircases when he jumped the disappearing step, only to find that it was in a different place and he tumbled down the stairs as he narrowly missing plummeting through the gap.

Sirius finally reached the hospital wing and was relieved to find that it was deserted. Madam Pomfrey was seated in her office with her back to the door, and with no patients to see him, Sirius pushed open the door to the storeroom and slipped inside.

He grabbed anything that Remus had told him might be useful. The Strengthening Solution bottle was almost empty and Sirius felt a twinge of conscience at stealing the last of the supplies without telling Madam Pomfrey what he was doing. There were a few empty containers on one of the highest shelves and Sirius poured the solution into one of those, resolving to place the empty Strengthening Solution where Madam Pomfrey would see it and know to replace it.

Looking round the room one last time, Sirius hoped that he hadn't forgotten anything and wished he knew more about what it was that Remus had poured down his throat by the healer after each full moon. "Going to have to learn all this stuff," he muttered to himself before stopping short and blinking a few times as the implications of his words sank in.

Impulsive, reckless and barely thinking any further than the next prank, it came as rather a shock for Sirius to be suddenly considering any aspect of his life in the future. But considering it he was. Madam Pomfrey wasn't going to be around to take care of Remus after they graduated; that would be his job. Which meant that he had to learn about the healing potions for himself. The idea of voluntarily doing extra studying battled with his inherent desire to keep things as they were right now. Unbidden, an image of Remus waiting for him in the dormitory came to him. He saw the new wounds and the old scars; he saw his friend's pain and knew that there was no choice at all.

Gathering the various potions under the invisibility cloak, Sirius hurried back to the dormitory.

Remus looked even paler now than when he'd left. Sirius could see that the wound on his chest was still bleeding.

"Did you get everything?" Remus asked weakly.

"I think so," Sirius replied as he carefully placed one bottle after another onto the bedside table. "We need to get that wound sealed first. Which one do you need for that?"

"Not a potion," Remus murmured. "A spell."

"What spell?" Sirius asked in a quiet whisper.

"Don't know. Did you get the Strengthening Solution?"

"Right here," Sirius took the unmarked bottle and passed it to Remus who gulped down the contents. "Better?"

Remus nodded. "Okay, library next. There's a book about healing spells that our Madam Pomfrey keeps in her office. I checked out the school copy back in second year to see what was in it. I need you to go get it for me."

Sirius picked up the cloak again and wrapped it around himself. "Consider it done. What's it called?"

"It's –" Remus gasped as he looked past him towards the door. The little colour he'd regained from the Strengthening Solution disappeared again. Sirius turned around to see who had found them and came face to face with the other Remus, who was looking even whiter than Moony.

"Bloody hell!" the other Remus whispered as his eyes took in the sight of battered, bruised and bloodied boy stretched out on the bed.

Sirius pushed back the hood of the cloak and pulled out his wand, grateful that Remus had had the sense to bring it to him after he'd left it back in their own world.

"What happened?" the other Remus asked quietly, his eyes not leaving Moony.

"Full moon," Moony replied tiredly.

"But…I thought…I…"

"What?" Sirius snapped. "You thought that maybe Moony here was out attacking anyone and everyone last night? That he thinks being a werewolf is a laugh? That it's fun?"

Moony snorted slightly at that, knowing that for his friends the idea of transfiguring themselves into animals and running around with him was precisely that. Sirius ignored him and continued to glare at the other Remus.

"He looks pretty beaten up," he finally said as he cautiously approached the bed.

"It's not always this bad," Moony admitted with a groan of pain as he tried to look past his counterpart towards where Sirius was standing. "It was a rough one without Prongs to help though."

"Help?"

"We keep him under control," Sirius explained.

"But why wasn't he with you? Why are even here? Shouldn't you all have gone back or something?"

"He's missing. When we got back to where we left him, he was nowhere in sight, just his cloak and no sign of where he'd gone to. We were looking for him when the moon rose…"

"It seems our worlds have a different lunar cycle," Moony continued quietly. "I wasn't expecting it for another week and that didn't help. My body it…it wasn't ready for the change."

"So this isn't normal then?" the other Remus asked. "Normally you'd be like any other werewolf?"

"If you're insinuating that any other month he'd be going round biting people, then no!" snapped Sirius as he glared at the other boy. The wand that had gradually lowered during the course of the discussion rose again.

Moony groaned again as he tried to sit up. "Can we _please_ fight about this later?" he rasped. He leaned round to look at Sirius. "I really need you to get that book. It's called _Derwent's Compendium of Healing Charms_."

"I'm on my way," Sirius said quickly before he turned to glare at the other Remus. "Come on."

"What?"

"You're coming with me," Sirius explained as though speaking to a small child.

"The library's in the same place as in your world. I think you can find your way on your own."

"It's not that," Sirius hissed. "It's just that I don't trust you. Now you have two choices. You can come with me to the library or I can put you in a full body bind."

Remus shot to his feet and made for the door, his choice made.

"Our Sirius is in Defence Against the Dark Arts class," he said as he waited at the door. "You can leave the cloak here and you'll just be taken for the other you if you're spotted."

Sirius looked hesitant for a moment before he placed the cloak back on the end of the bed. "So why aren't you in class?" he asked as they made their way down the stairs.

"Some things are more important than classes. I was waiting for Charlene. She's been away and arrived back early this morning. By the time I got to speak to her classes had already started."

"Oh."

"I know you were there earlier, how much did you hear?"

"Not much," Sirius admitted, flushing slightly at having been caught eavesdropping, unintentionally though it was.

"We're…er…sort of together," Remus muttered. "She lives quite near to us and we got together last summer."

"You never mentioned it."

"Unlike James I was quite capable of remembering that the 'Charlie' in your world isn't the same one I know. And it's not like we're exclusive or anything."

"No need to defend yourself to me," Sirius muttered, not entirely comfortable with the way the conversation was going. After all the recent hostility the almost friendly discussion was rather unnerving.

"I'm not, I'm just…" Remus shrugged, giving every indication that he had no idea what he was just doing or saying.

"Let's just get the book and get back to Moony," Sirius said, quickening his pace and leaving it so Remus practically had to run to keep up with him.

The book was easy enough to get; all Remus had to do was ask Madam Pince for it. The woman scurried away with a bright smile, returning a moment later with the book.

"That was weird," Sirius said once they were back in the corridor.

"Our Pince is quite helpful," Remus replied with a grin. "Apart from when she's had a row with her other half."

"I didn't even know she was married."

"They're not yet, wedding's set for the summer if you believe the house elves' gossip."

"So are you going to tell me who?" asked Sirius when it was clear that Remus knew who it was the librarian was to marry and was getting delicious enjoyment out of withholding the information.

"It'll give you nightmares," Remus warned with a grin.

Sirius felt himself grinning back, this Remus so reminiscent of his own Moony he couldn't help relaxing again. "I'll risk it."

Remus paused a moment, tormenting Sirius just a little while longer. "Filch," he finally said with a smirk.

Sirius groaned and shook his head. "Urgh…the mental images…no…yuck…"

"I did warn you," Remus laughed. Sirius felt himself laughing too before he felt a twinge of guilt and he quickened his pace to hurry back to Moony. He wasn't supposed to be laughing with Remus's double, he was supposed to be taking care of Moony.

Moony sat up as the two boys burst into the dormitory. "Something funny?" he asked.

"Don't ask," Sirius warned. "Believe me, you don't want to know."

"Did you get the book?"

"Of course." Sirius produced it with a flourish. "Do you know which spell it is?"

Moony shook his head. Sirius opened the book and rapidly scanned the contents, shaking his own head thoughtfully as he tried to ascertain which spell would be the most effective. Finally he found one that appeared to be what he was looking for. He pushed back the bandage and pointed his wand at one end of the gaping wound. He vaguely heard another gasp from the other Remus but there was no time to say anything. The removal of the bandage had caused the blood to flow freely again and Sirius whispered the incantation over and over as he pointed his wand at the wound that simply didn't want to close.

"Nothing's happening," he growled in frustration.

"The wand needs to touch the open wound," Moony whispered. "When Madam Pomfrey does it there's a heat that comes from her wand. It cauterises the wound like muggles used to do."

"I think muggles might have had the right idea in abandoning this sort of thing," Sirius muttered as he braced himself to try the spell again.

"I trust you Sirius," Moony whispered and he placed a steady hand on Sirius's shaking one.

"I don't want to hurt you," Sirius whispered, his hand shaking even more as he began the spell again.

"I'll do it," the other Remus offered quietly as he approached the bed.

It was on the tip of his tongue to reply 'I'll bet' when he remembered that a little earlier they had been laughing and joking together. Instead of making the caustic remark that had been his first instinct he nodded mutely and moved aside so that the other boy could draw nearer. He took Moony's hand in his own and tried not to wince as the grip round his fingers tightened and Moony hissed in pain.

"Yell if you want," Sirius said, even though he knew that every cry would tear him apart. Moony shook his head and bit on his lip instead. "Bloody stubborn werewolf."

Finally it was done and the iron grip on his hand loosened. He twisted the hand in his own and raised it to his lips.

"Er…do you guys want to be alone?" the other Remus asked with a smile.

"I just want to sleep," Moony laughed. "It's been a rough night."

"Potions first," Sirius ordered as he released Moony's hand and turned to the bedside table.

"The blood replenishing one first," Moony said, pointing to the nearest bottle. Sirius nodded and picked up the bottle. Then he turned and sat down beside Moony, pulling him into a sitting position and easing the liquid down his throat.

"Sleeping one?" Sirius asked after putting the first bottle back.

Moony shook his head. "The numbing one first, then the sleeping one."

Once Remus had drank all the potions he needed, he settled down to sleep in Sirius's arms.

"You should get some sleep too," the other Remus said as he stepped back from the bed.

"Later," Sirius replied, even as a treacherous yawn escaped him.

"No one will come in here. There's just me and Sirius here now. No one will know you're hiding out in here."

Sirius nodded and yawned again.

"Get some sleep," Remus ordered and he stood up to leave.

"Remus?"

He turned around at the door, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Thank you," Sirius whispered quietly, unsure if the other boy had even heard him. Finally he nodded in acknowledgement and quietly left the room.

* * *

A couple of hours later and Sirius was standing alone in the clearing of the Forbidden Forest watching the portal between the two worlds open up again.

On the other side Peter looked back at him in astonishment. The astonishment turned to apprehension when he realised that Sirius was alone.

Communicating slowly by writing words in the air, Sirius explained what had happened. He could see Peter frantically gesturing that he should join them but with no one else to open the portal for them it was not worth the risk.

_Lily will help_, Peter wrote in the air.

Sirius was torn between the idea of risking the redhead's wrath and getting the extra help from Peter or keeping what they had done between themselves. According to Peter they were already in trouble with McGonagall who had apparently mumbled something about Quidditch bans since none of them seemed to be learning anything from detentions. Thankfully the professor only thought them to be skiving lessons and not actually gallivanting around in another dimension.

_Give us the weekend_, he finally wrote back.

Peter reluctantly nodded and Sirius mimicked the wand movement the other Remus had shown him which closed the portal once more.

* * *

Sirius walked back to the castle, wondering where James was and how they were ever going to find him. He didn't see the girls hurrying in his direction as they made their way to the Quidditch pitch. It wasn't that he was really listening to their conversation, but something about the snatches he heard seemed vaguely familiar.

"…she's been acting strange since Christmas…"

"…do _you_ know why she was called home in the middle of term?"

"…did you see those marks on her arms?"

"…there were some on her back too…"

"…they looked vicious…"

"…how do you think she got them?"

"…she tried to hide them…"

"…she wouldn't say…"

Sirius stopped in his tracks, frowning as the girls moved out of his earshot. Were they talking about Charlene? She'd apparently been home for some emergency or another. He didn't remember seeing any marks on her but he hadn't really been taking much notice.

Either way the conversation was horribly familiar. Discussions about another student going home in the middle of term with flimsy excuses and arriving back just after the full moon had passed. Another student with marks – scars? – that they were trying to hide.

Remus had said Charlene lived near him and his own parents had been killed by werewolves. Could Charlene have been bitten?

Sirius shook his head violently. He didn't even know that they were talking about Charlene and didn't he have enough problems on his plate at the moment?

It's not like it was any of his business anyway. It wasn't like it was the Charlene he knew and played Quidditch with. She wasn't the Charlene who had stuck up for him and Remus and, along with so many others, supported them in their relationship.

It wasn't any of his business.

He told himself that repeatedly as he hurried through the castle, detouring to the kitchens for some lunch for himself and Moony.

He told himself to stay out of things that didn't concern him as he entered the Gryffindor common room.

He was even telling himself to keep quiet and say nothing when he saw the pale and frighteningly still Charlene sitting alone near the fireplace.

The sniff that betrayed the fact that she had been crying was his undoing and he swore under his breath as he approached her.

"Er…Charlie?" he asked. "You okay?"

"Charlie?" Charlene repeated. "No one's called me that in years."

"Sorry. Habit."

Charlene looked at him curiously. "It doesn't matter," she replied quietly. "Did you want something?"

"I just wanted to check you were all right."

"I'm fine," Charlene replied with a bright smile that was remarkably similar to the ones that Remus had given during his first year at Hogwarts. The smile that was a total utter lie.

"You don't have to lie to me," Sirius said quietly as he sat down beside her.

"I'm not lying." Charlene's flushed face said otherwise.

"I thought we were friends," Sirius sighed, hoping that it was true in this world as well as in his own. Charlene merely shrugged, neither denying nor confirming his words.

"Can I ask you something?" he asked, prompting another shrug. "In for a knut in for a galleon," he muttered to himself before ploughing on ahead. "Were you bitten by a werewolf?"

Charlene paled even further until her face was a chalky white and the only sound that came from her lips was a small squeak.

"I'll take that as a yes, shall I?" Sirius commented with a grin.

Charlene nodded mutely, and Sirius's grin widened. "Come with me," he said as he stood up and offered her a hand. "There's someone I think you should meet."

He pulled her up from her seat and tugged her towards the boys' dormitory.

The room was empty apart from Moony who had recovered enough to be sitting on the bed instead of sleeping in it.

"Remus?" Charlene asked with a frown of confusion.

"Padfoot?" Remus turned to him with a raise of his eyebrows. "It kind of helps us stay hidden if you don't go bringing girls up here."

"He…I…er…" Charlene flushed as Sirius laughed.

"He didn't mean like that," Sirius chuckled. "Moony knows I only have eyes for him."

"I_ knew_ it!" Charlene blurted. "I knew you were gay."

"Yes, quite," Sirius laughed. "Though if you want to be really technical about it, in our case, it's bi."

"Er…so I guess I'm being dumped, huh?" Charlene muttered in a tone of voice of one who had thought the day couldn't get any worse, only to find that it could.

"Huh?" Remus asked.

"This isn't Remus," Sirius explained cheerfully. "Or at least it isn't the one you've been seeing. This one is mine."

Remus grumbled under his breath at being referred to like a possession, but it seemed that Charlene was still confused.

"We're from another world," Sirius explained. "Where things are a bit different…"

"A lot different!" Remus interrupted.

"A world where you aren't a werewolf, but Moony here is," Sirius concluded with a smile.

"You're a werewolf?" Charlene and Remus asked each other in perfect synchronisation.

"You were bitten at Christmas right?" Sirius guessed as he turned to Charlene who nodded, her face flushing with embarrassment. "Moony here was bitten as a child, he's had a lot of time to get used to it…"

"You never really get used to it," Remus whispered. "You just learn to value those friends who will accept you for what you are all the more."

"But your friends don't have parents who were murdered by the local wolf pack," Charlene pointed out bitterly.

"No, they don't," Remus admitted.

Charlene looked from one boy to the other and the tears that she'd been holding back since Sirius had entered the common room began to fall.

Sirius guided her towards the bed and sat down with his arm around her shoulders. Remus inched closer to her other side and cautiously patted her knee.

"It's not the end of the world," he offered. "He knows about my furry little problem and he seems to be coming round to the idea that I'm not a monster."

"He is?" Charlene asked with another sniff.

"Well he helped patch me up earlier," Remus replied.

"There's a bit of a difference between patching up a werewolf and dating one," Charlene muttered.

"Just tell him that they're great in bed," Sirius said with a grin that earned him a slap round the back of the head from Remus. "Ow."

"And if that fails I could always go home with you guys since your world seems a lot more understanding than this one." Charlene smiled at her weak joke.

"I'm afraid our world isn't much better," Remus pointed out sadly. "It's just that I have some really great friends."

Sirius practically preened at Remus's words.

"Despite the egos," he whispered, earning himself a slap round the back of his own head from Sirius.

"It's so weird," Charlene mused as she looked from one boy to the other. "You look just like them but you act so differently."

"We're the new and improved versions," Sirius announced with a grin.

"See what I mean?" Remus rolled his eyes and mouthed 'ego' to Charlene who cracked another smile and chuckled.

"Seriously though," Remus said quietly. "You should tell him before he figures it out for himself. He'll probably catch on pretty quickly, especially since he's met me and knows what signs to look out for."

"But what if he doesn't understand? What if he hates me? What if he tells everyone?"

"What if he understands, loves you and helps you keep your secret?" Remus countered. "You'll never know if you don't tell him."

"Dumbledore and McGonagall said I wasn't allowed to tell anyone."

"They told me the same thing," Remus admitted. "But they'll expect your closest friends to figure it out anyway."

"I'm not sure I'm ready for this," Charlene whispered.

"No one ever is," Remus told her. "No one ever is."

* * *

A/N - No I haven't forgotten about my other Remus/Sirius fic Once in a Blue Moon. I know a few people reading this one are reading both so thought I would mention that it hasn't been abandoned.

I hope you liked this update, several parts of it went through several re-writes so I hope that I made the right choice with what is finally posted today.


	10. Snape's Secret

Chapter 10

A light rain was falling as the boys entered the Forbidden Forest to renew their search for James.

"Shall we try in the direction of Hogsmeade?" Sirius suggested, recalling the eagerness of the wolf to go there the night before.

"Might as well," Remus replied with a shrug. "Only…"

"What?"

"Nothing." Remus shook his head.

Sirius could sense whatever it was that Remus had started to say might be important. "Oh no you don't," he ordered. "What's going on in that brilliant mind that I'm missing?"

Remus shifted from one foot to the other, looking at the ground, the sky and anywhere but Sirius. "Well it's just that the wolf last night was eager to head towards Hogsmeade and the shack and since that's where Charlene was last night, maybe the wolf was simply sensing its own kind. Maybe it wasn't James the wolf was trying to get to."

"Oh." Sirius could think of nothing else to say to the idea that the wolf had been eager to get to the other werewolf in the area…the female werewolf in the area. The green-eyed monster was rearing its ugly head again and Sirius had to take a deep and calming breath to force it back down.

"I knew this would happen," Remus muttered as he started walking around the edge of the forest towards Hogsmeade.

"I'm not jealous," Sirius lied.

"Yes you are," Remus accused. "You're always jealous and it doesn't matter that last night it was all the wolf and nothing to do with me. I can't even remember last night."

"I'm sorry," Sirius said as he hurried to keep up with Remus's quick pace.

"Let's just see if he's in Hogsmeade and worry about your issues later," Remus suggested. "One problem at a time is about all I can handle right now."

"I think we have another one," Sirius said as he heard the sound of a snapping twig to their left.

Remus nodded and pulled out his wand, pointing it towards where the sound had come from. From the corner of his eye he could see that Sirius had done likewise.

"It's all right Remus, it's just me," a familiar voice said and Remus watched in astonishment as Severus Snape stepped out from behind a tree.

"_Snivellus!_" Sirius sneered, his wand still held high.

"Showing your true colours now, aren't you?" Severus said as he trained his own wand on Sirius and beckoned Remus towards him.

"Should have known that body bind wouldn't keep you from trying to steal someone else's life," Sirius replied. "Sneaky little Slytherin scum!"

"Huh?" Severus blinked a time or two as though he didn't know what Sirius was talking about. It was then that Remus looked closer at the other boy and realised their mistake.

"Which house are you in?" Remus asked as he lowered his wand slightly.

"Ravenclaw," Severus replied, confirming Remus's suspicion that the boy facing them was the one who had gone missing in this world, rather than their own Snape. "Wait a minute," Severus shook his head as though gathering his thoughts. "You aren't Prongs's friends are you?"

"Yes," Remus nodded as he breathed a sigh of relief.

"You know Prongs?" Sirius asked. "Where is he?"

"Keeping an eye on Lily," Severus replied.

"Lily's here too?" Sirius asked Remus. "Why didn't you say so?"

"I meant our Lily…you know her as Lillian," Severus clarified.

"I know her as the annoying bint who kidnapped me," Sirius muttered.

"Don't you mean dog-napped?" Severus laughed.

"How do you know…?" Sirius faltered. "And how do you know Prongs is…well Prongs?"

"Met him yesterday and he filled me in on who he was and what had happened," Severus explained.

"I find it difficult to believe that Prongs would tell you anything," Sirius sneered.

"I found him quite talkative after I saved his life."

"You did?" Remus asked. "What happened? Is he all right?"

"He was fine half an hour ago," Severus confirmed. "We have to get back to the school though, I'll explain on the way."

During the walk back to Hogwarts, Severus explained that he'd been spying on the dark wizard's minions in Hogsmeade on behalf of Dumbledore since before the Christmas holidays.

"I thought you'd been taken prisoner by them?" Remus asked. "Sirius said…"

"Sirius says a lot of things," Severus muttered venomously. "He tells everyone what they want to hear, whilst all the time he's been working against us, spying on us, betraying us."

"But why?" Remus asked. "He's a pureblood, he's one of the persecuted."

"That what he told you?" Severus snorted. "Sirius is a half-blood, the result of his mother's affair with a muggle. The family hushed it up but the rumour's been doing the rounds for years."

"But he said…"

"He lied!" Severus snapped.

"You don't know that for sure," Sirius said with a scowl.

"I think I know this world and those in it a little better than you do," Severus snarled. "I'm going out on a limb here and trusting you, when for all I know you could be as black-hearted as our Sirius is."

Remus placed a calming hand on Sirius's arm. "What about Lillian?" he asked. "We thought she was the spy."

"Lily?" Severus laughed so much he nearly choked. "Lily a spy? She'd be useless. She can't hide her feelings at all. The hardest thing I've had to do these last months is let her believe I'm dead. But she'd only give me away if she knew the truth. Prongs said you were the smart one, and you thought she was a spy?" Severus shook his head as he continued to laugh.

"But she dog-napped me," Sirius whined.

"She probably thought you were being ill-treated," Severus explained. "She's always doing stuff like that when she thinks an animal is suffering. She single-handedly re-painted the owlery in fourth year because she thought the birds might be bored with the plain white walls. Now it's multicoloured."

"So you're sure she's not a spy?" Sirius asked.

Severus shook his head. "I love her more than anything but she'll be the first to admit that she's not the brightest of bulbs."

"And Remus?" Sirius asked, still not wanting to accept the idea that his own double might be the one with evil intentions.

"He's no spy," Severus confirmed. "The Dark Lord believes that by using werewolves to kill the parents and bite the children he can raise an army of dark creatures. Remus had a lucky escape that he was stuck in your world when his home was attacked. Sirius was probably hoping that once Remus was on his master's side he'd have a chance with him. He's had a thing for him for years. Like I said, lucky escape."

"Pity Charlene was not so lucky," Remus said softly.

"She's strong," Severus said. "She'll never join the other side in this war. Most of them won't. The Dark Lord has made a mistake and instead of raising an army of his own, he is merely strengthening ours."

"How is it you know so much?" Sirius asked in a rather petulant tone.

"Er…spy!" Severus replied sarcastically.

"So where're Prongs and Lillian now?" Remus asked. "And what about your Peter? Is he spying with you?"

"Peter's abroad," Severus replied. "Got an offer from an international Quidditch team to play professionally. With things so dangerous here, well he jumped at the offer."

"So he's not missing?"

"No."

"Lillian thinks he missing."

"Lillian has about as much interest in Quidditch as she does in astrophysics," Severus snorted. "And Peter did leave in a bit of a hurry. Didn't have much time for bragging."

"Why should we believe you?" Sirius asked. "The Snape in our world is a nasty little Slytherin. Who's to say that you're not just like him?"

"Well you could pick up a copy of last Wednesday's Daily Prophet and check the sports pages," Severus suggested. "There's a feature on the new young bloods that are taking international Quidditch by storm. Peter has half a page to himself."

"And Prongs and Lillian?" Remus repeated. "Where are they?"

"Lillian got captured yesterday, probably not long after you came to rescue your boyfriend here. Prongs followed after her. It would have worked except he saw me and thought I was one of them. He hexed me and gave away his own position."

"It was probably a reflex action," Sirius interrupted.

"I know you don't get along with the other me," Severus said. "But if you want to avoid getting us all killed you need to get over it and work with me here."

Sirius nodded silently, although Remus could still see the stubborn set of his jaw.

Severus however, either missed it or ignored it and continued to explain. "Despite the hex, I helped him get out of there but Lillian is far too valuable to them to let her go so easily. Her ancestors helped to found St Mungos and the family is still said to guard the secrets of powerful healing magic. Some say they know the secrets of immortality. She was too heavily guarded so Prongs has gone to keep an eye on things under the invisibility cloak."

"But we have the cloak," Sirius pointed out, holding it up for emphasis.

"I meant my cloak," Severus sighed. "It used to be our James's but he gave it to me just before he died."

"Prongs gave up his invisibility cloak?" Sirius asked with frank disbelief.

"He means their James," Remus pointed out impatiently.

"Oh, yeah," Sirius muttered as he recalled James's double. "I guess he would do something thick like that."

"Whether you're from another world or not," Severus raised his wand and pointed it Sirius. "If you insult my murdered friend again, I will curse you, and so badly you'll wish you'd never opened the portal that brought you here."

"Sorry," Sirius muttered, repeating it again with a little more conviction after Remus had elbowed him in the ribs.

"So I take it you have a plan to rescue Lillian?" Remus asked as they followed Severus into the castle and towards the staircases.

"Of course."

"And what is it?" Sirius asked impatiently.

"The Dark Lord has realised his mistake with the young werewolves not immediately joining him and he's using powerful magic to summon them to him instead. It's more potent during the full moon but he casts the same spell each evening at sunset. We just need a werewolf to pretend to be being summoned by the spell to get in there for us."

"So that's why you were so eager to get to the village," Sirius whispered with a relieved smile. "You weren't chasing after Charlene after all."

Remus smiled and took hold of Sirius's hand. "Getting over those jealousy issues?" he smirked before turning back to Severus. "So about the werewolf infiltration. I take it that's where I come in?"

"You're a werewolf?" Severus asked in surprise.

"I thought Prongs told you everything?" Sirius smirked.

"I guess he gave me a somewhat edited version," Severus replied easily. "I was thinking of Charlene but if one werewolf is ideal, two is better."

"I'm not sure Charlene will agree to this," Remus pointed out. "She's a new wolf and still trying to get used to all this."

"New wolves are the ones that Dark Lord is expecting," Severus pointed out.

"But still…"

"We can still ask her," Severus said as they reached the portrait hole, gave the password and climbed through.

"You could at least have let a Gryffindor give the password," Sirius muttered.

"At least I'm from this world," Severus retorted. "Besides, it's not like I don't spend even more time in this common room than my own anyway."

"Sev!" the other Remus exclaimed from his seat near the fireplace. "You're alive!"

Remus watched as all the colour drained from his double's face and he sprang up from his seat and enveloped the other boy in a tight hug.

"Moony?" Sirius whispered. "I'm feeling traumatised again."

Remus sighed and wrapped an arm around Sirius's waist. "Better now?"

"Getting there," Sirius whispered back.

"Let's give them a moment," Remus said as he tugged Sirius towards the sofa where Charlene was sitting. "How's it going?" he asked her as he sat down, Sirius curling up next to him, more like a contented cat than the dog he was.

"I've told him," Charlene said quietly.

"And?"

"I don't know," Charlene admitted. "He's barely said a word to me since I finished explaining what had happened."

"At least he didn't run screaming from the room," Remus pointed out. "And Severus seems to understand that werewolves aren't monsters. I think he might be able to help."

"I hope so," Charlene replied. "I hope so."

But when the two boys had finished getting re-acquainted Remus noted that his double took the seat furthest away from Charlene. He hoped it wasn't intentional.

* * *

"So what do you think?" Severus asked once he'd outlined his plan to the group.

"It's a good plan," Remus said as he elbowed Sirius in the ribs. Sirius nodded begrudgingly.

"I don't like it," the other Remus said.

"Because it means trusting a couple of werewolves?" Sirius asked coldly.

"Because it's too dangerous for them."

Remus smiled to himself as he settled back again Sirius. His double was starting to think about werewolves as people, instead of monsters and that could only be a good sign.

"I think it's a good plan," Charlene said quietly. "I'm in."

"Me too," Remus said as he took her hand and gave it an encouraging squeeze.

"Me three," Sirius said as he pulled Remus's hand back and enclosed it in his own.

Severus nodded and stood up. "Classes will be over soon. I'd better leave before I'm spotted. Don't let anyone know I've been here. We'll go in and get Lily tomorrow evening."

"Why not now?" Sirius asked. "And what about Prongs?"

"Prongs can take care of himself," Severus replied. "And the Dark Lord is rumoured to be halving his guards tomorrow, it would be foolish to risk a rescue attempt now when things will be less hazardous tomorrow."

Everyone nodded in agreement and Severus swept from the room without a backwards glance.

"So Sirius is the spy," the other Remus whispered. "I still can't believe it."

Charlene reached across and took his hand, squeezing it slightly in comfort. Remus watched them and felt a small smile appear on his face when his double didn't pull away. He turned to Sirius and gestured towards the staircase to the dorms.

"Let's give them some time alone," he suggested in a quiet whisper. Sirius nodded in reply and they left the other two alone to deal with the news Severus had brought them.

* * *

Sirius and Remus stood in the clearing, the other Remus, Severus and Charlene at the back of them and a very irate Lily Evans shaking her fist in front of them.

"I'm so glad I can't hear her," Sirius whispered into Remus's ear.

"Feel sorry for Peter," Remus muttered back. "He can."

"Serves him right for enlisting her _help_ anyway."

Lily soon seemed to realise that sound didn't travel through the portal and turned her attentions to Peter who began to back away from the famous Evans Temper. Unfortunately he was backing away towards them and no amount of yelling from Sirius and Remus could warn him.

"Shut the portal," Sirius shouted. "Quick, before he…"

"Too late," Remus sighed as Peter stumbled backwards through the portal and landed in a heap at their feet. Lily followed immediately after him, shrieking at the top of her lungs.

Then the portal closed.

"Anyone else planning on joining us for the field trip?" Severus asked sarcastically.

"Oh wonderful," Peter muttered as he crawled to his feet. "Snivellus."

"I swear, the next person who calls me that is going to get seriously hexed," Severus snarled.

"I thought we had to learn to work together?" Sirius asked sweetly.

"We're working with Snivellus?" Peter exclaimed, shaking his head mutely for a moment before squealing in pain at the stinging hex Severus shot at him.

Lily meanwhile smacked Peter round the back of the head, glared at Sirius and Remus, and then seemed to resign herself to the fact that she was, for the moment, stuck with them.

"Right, it's a Hogsmeade weekend so we won't stand out in the village," Severus said. "I suggest you hang out with the rest of the students and then meet me at the back of the Hogs Head at six. Just make sure you don't respond to the spell before we've planned. Remember, it's cast at sunset."

"What are you going to be doing?" Remus asked.

"I have to get a message to Dumbledore to let him know what's happened. I'll be staying out of sight – the fewer people to know I'm alive and well, the better. Then we'll go rescue our Lily."

The rest of the group nodded and Severus swept off through the trees, leaving them to walk to the village and mingle with the rest of the crowd.

"So where do you think the other Sirius is?" Sirius asked. "He didn't come back to the dorm last night."

"Don't know, don't care," the other Remus hissed. "I've got an AK with his name on it if he so much as shows his face."

"You can't do that," Charlene pointed out. "We can't let him know we're onto him."

The other Remus snorted in response.

"It's going to be a long day," Remus whispered to Sirius.

"I'm sure I can make the time go faster for you," Sirius whispered back with a grin.

"You could also fill the time by telling me what the heck is going on!" Lily complained.

* * *

"Hey Moony, Wormtail, look at this!" Sirius exclaimed as he pulled a box from the shelf in Zonko's.

"This place is great," Peter enthused. "It's like a whole new world of pranks that our world doesn't even have. It's brilliant."

"Padfoot, don't you think you've got enough to carry?" Remus asked as he pulled the box of water-resistant fireworks from Sirius's hands and put it back on the shelf.

"You're just annoyed because you were outvoted on visiting the bookshop," Sirius said as he grabbed the box again and headed for the counter. "You could have gone with Lily if you wanted. I wouldn't have minded…much."

"We should be meeting up with her and the others soon," Remus said. "It's nearly six."

"But I've got to get a present for Prongs," Sirius whined. "He'll be so sorry he missed this."

"Fine! One present, no more," Remus warned. "And I'm not carrying it for you."

Sirius paid for his purchase and steered the others back out of the door with a wide grin. They strolled towards the Hogs Head at a pace that was slowed down considerably by the various packages and parcels they'd bought during the afternoon.

"You're late," Severus snapped as they turned the corner. He didn't wait for a reply as he turned and started to walk down the path that would eventually lead to the shrieking shack.

"Isn't this the way to the shrieking shack?" Sirius asked.

"Yes," Severus replied.

"But why are we going there? I thought we were rescuing Lillian and getting Prongs?"

"We are. That's where she's being held."

"But I thought…"

"Charlene?" Remus turned to his fellow werewolf curiously. "Where were you the night of the full moon?"

"In the room of requirement," she replied immediately. "It appears for me as a safe place with no escape. Why?"

"You mean you don't go to the shrieking shack?"

"What for?"

"Well that's where I go every month," Remus explained.

"Bit of a trek when there's a perfectly good secure room in the castle itself," Charlene replied with a shrug.

"I wonder why the shack was built then," Remus mused.

"It's been here for decades. Deserted for nearly as long. It's just a regular house."

"Okay, be quiet now," Severus hissed. "Can you sense the spell?"

Remus closed his eyes and realised that he could. He reached his hand out and felt Sirius's firm grip anchoring him once more. Now that they were near the pull of the spell was strong, but not so strong he couldn't resist it. He opened his eyes and looked across at Charlene. She had a look of concentration on her face that he suspected was mirrored on his own and she was holding onto the other Remus's hand in a similar manner to the way he was holding onto Sirius.

"I think they'll make it," Sirius whispered in Remus's ear and he planted a quick kiss on his cheek. Remus smiled back at him and nodded.

"Right, you two know what you're doing?" Severus asked.

Remus and Charlene nodded.

"Then you'd better get going," Severus ordered. "If you're not back in one hour we're coming in after you."

"Maybe I should scout ahead under the cloak," Sirius suggested. "Just to make sure."

"Cloak?" Lily asked.

"Invisibility cloak," Severus explained. "Didn't you know?"

"So that's how you get away with so many pranks," Lily hissed. "I should have guessed. Trust the Black family to think that's a suitable thing to send a kid to school with."

"Actually it's James's," Sirius replied.

"It'd be difficult for you to get inside without causing suspicion," Severus said. "Prongs had to wait for nearly an hour before one of them opened the door and he could sneak in."

"I could take a look as Wormtail," Peter piped up.

"A rat, right?" Severus asked, clearly recalling his conversation with Prongs. Peter nodded in confirmation. "That might work actually. Find out what you can and meet us back here."

Peter nodded and transformed into a rat. Charlene squeaked and jumped out of his way but the rest merely watched him calmly as he scurried towards the building.

"He's an illegal animagus?" Lily hissed again. "I can't believe it. I mean, I could believe it of you two, but Peter!"

"Er…" Sirius mumbled under his breath.

"Oh, don't tell me," Lily snapped. "No, actually, do tell me! So I know just what to tell McGonagall when we get back."

Sirius was suddenly finding a nearby clump of grass rather interesting and left it to Remus to explain the full extent of their rule-breaking.

Peter returned half an hour later and reported that Lillian was being held in a room on the second floor, there was unfortunately no tunnel leading to Hogwarts that might help them, and James was watching over Lillian but had managed to get himself locked in with her.

"Typical!" Sirius muttered.

"They don't seem to know he's in there," Peter confirmed. "Lillian went into hysterics again when she saw me and James batted me out of the room. He knew it was me so he'll be ready for the rescue."

"How many guards?" Severus asked.

"One in the entrance hall, two in the ground floor kitchen and one outside her door."

"Any spells?"

"None that I could see."

"They're opening their doors with the summoning spell," Severus stated. "To also have wards and spells blocking the place would mean diminishing the effect of the summoning spell."

"I think we're set then," Remus said. "You ready?" he asked Charlene.

"Be careful," Sirius said before pulling him close and kissing him as though he'd never see him again.

"We'll be back with the others in no time," Remus promised.

"You better be," Sirius warned.

* * *

Sirius watched as Remus and Charlene made their way towards the shrieking shack.

"He'll be all right," Peter said quietly.

"I hope so," Sirius replied. "I just wish I didn't have such a bad feeling about this. A feeling like something is going to go wrong any minute."


	11. The Chapter in Desperate Need of a Title

Chapter 11

Remus and Charlene arrived at the door to the shack and pushed it open. "Werewolves don't knock," he whispered as he stepped inside.

"Who's there?" a voice called out and Remus stepped further down the hallway towards the middle-aged wizard who had his wand trained on him. "Been dared to look around the old haunted house, have you? Clear off now and we won't call the Ministry."

Remus glared at the wizard and did something he'd never voluntarily done before. He summoned the wolf himself. Growling deep and low in his throat he advanced on the wizard before him. He could see behind him into the kitchen where the other two wizards had risen from their seats and pulled out their wands.

"Looks like the Dark Lord's spell is starting to work," one of the other wizards in the kitchen gleefully announced. "Our first cubs have arrived."

"I'll send a message to him at once," the third and final wizard said as he left the kitchen by an exit that Remus couldn't see.

"What's going on?" asked Remus with feigned ignorance.

"The Dark Lord is eager to welcome you into his ranks," the first wizard explained as he waved them into the adjoining room.

"I'll never join the Dark Lord," Charlene spat and Remus silently admired her conviction.

"Oh but you will. The Dark Lord can offer you freedom on the nights of the full moon, and fresh meat, ripe for the taking."

Remus growled again and made a show of smacking his lips with his tongue. Charlene mimicked his movement as she took a seat.

"New wolves are always easily controlled," the wizard laughed. "The Dark Lord will be pleased."

"Except he's not a new wolf," a fourth voice said from a darkened doorway of the room. Remus spun round to see Sirius's double staring back at him. "He's been a werewolf for a number of years and knows just how to control the wolf."

"How do you know this?" the wizard asked.

"Never mind that," Sirius hissed. "Leave me to deal with him, put the female in with the pureblood. She might be able to calm her hysterical little twit down. She's been screaming for the last ten minutes."

Remus gave Charlene a tiny nod and she was divested of her wand and led from the room.

"Leave us," Sirius ordered, and Remus didn't fail to notice how quickly the others obeyed his orders.

"You don't belong in this world," Sirius said as he sat down in the seat and waved Remus to join him. "You don't have to stay here, you and your friends are not a part of this fight."

"And Lillian and Charlene?" Remus asked.

"They're valuable to the cause."

"Why are you doing this?" Remus asked curiously.

"My mother is a pureblood, my father a muggle. It's a poorly kept secret in the wizarding community. The purebloods have looked down on me and sneered on me all my life for my muggle father. They don't sneer any more."

"Killing people, mass murder, it isn't the answer."

"I've never killed anyone," Sirius snapped.

"But the wizard you've thrown in your lot with has," Remus pointed out. "Joining him won't change anything other than getting you killed."

"Save the analysis for your own Sirius, from what I recall his family problems are far worse than mine."

"My Sirius would never join the other side in our world, despite the fact that his family believes in everything that monster stands for."

"Are you sure about that?" Sirius asked. "Are you _absolutely_ sure?"

"Yes," Remus replied firmly. Sirius looked at him for several minutes and Remus had to force himself not to break eye contact. He knew he could outstare this other Sirius, with his familiar yet cold grey eyes. He couldn't look away, not when he knew that the other young man would take that as a victory, and confirmation that Remus didn't trust his own Sirius as much as he claimed.

"You should leave now, the others won't stop you."

"Not without the girls," Remus insisted.

"As you wish," Sirius replied. "Guards!"

Two of the wizards appeared promptly at his call.

"Lock him in the room opposite the girls," Sirius ordered. "The Dark Lord can deal with him when he returns."

Remus reached into his pocket and pulled out his wand.

"Don't be foolish," Sirius warned as he took a step forward and held out his hand. "Attack me and you'll be dead before I even hit the ground."

The others would be here soon, Remus told himself as he reluctantly passed over his wand. They'd be out of there long before the Dark Lord returned.

* * *

"You know," James whispered beside him. "As rescue missions go, this one is a bit of a disaster."

"You think?" Remus muttered. "I thought you were in the other room with the girls."

"I slipped out when they brought Charlie up. Lillian was doing my nut with her screaming."

"Must be your way with the girls," Remus teased.

"It was Wormtail running around the room that sent her over the edge."

"I can't believe we thought she was the spy."

"How's Sirius taking it?"

"He's not said much," Remus admitted. "I think he's still in denial. I tried to talk to him about it last night but he didn't want to listen. I need to make him understand that just because his double is one of the bad guys, it doesn't mean he'll end up the same way."

"Well if he'll listen to anyone, it's you," James assured him.

"Thanks. I think things will get better once this is all over and we're home again."

"So how long until Sirius charges in without a thought in his head to rescue you?"

"Another half hour I guess," Remus replied. "Severus has a plan though."

"I thought you were the plan?"

"He has a backup. He's put this whole thing together. Would probably have worked if it weren't for Sirius's double showing up like that."

"It's so weird, working with Snivellus, I mean."

"I can't believe you agreed to work with him without me being there to make you," Remus snorted.

"Well he did save my life."

"But you told him about the animagus forms and everything."

"I didn't tell him you were a werewolf. And I only told him about the others because he was busy bragging about something or other and I wanted to outdo him."

"Should have guessed," Remus muttered.

"I've got to admit though, even though he's Snivellus's double, he's not really like him."

"You might want to stop calling him that by the way, he does a mean stinging hex, as Peter found out earlier."

"Um…about that," James said. "If Peter's here, how are we going to get back?"

"Severus knows where Dumbledore is," Remus told him. "He'll be able to get us back home again."

"Well that's good," James replied. "I'd hate to be stuck here forever, separated from the girl of my dreams."

"Er…"

"What?"

"About Lily…"

"What about her?"

"She's…er…here."

"What?"

"Came through with Wormtail by accident."

"Oh."

"Er…"

"What else? Come on, let's get all the bad news over with at once."

"She knows about Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail."

"You don't mean…"

"That's exactly what I mean."

"Oh."

"She's threatened to tell McGonagall as soon as we get back."

"Great, just great!"

"She seemed quite impressed though."

"Well that's good."

"But she's still telling on you."

"What did she think about my form being a stag?"

"..."

"She must have said something."

"Oh, she had a lot to say about it."

"Stags are majestic animals."

"..."

"Magnificent creatures of the forest."

"..."

"Why aren't you telling me what she said?"

"Because I want to live to see Padfoot again."

* * *

"Something's gone wrong," Severus muttered as the waiting teenagers waited for their friends to return.

"Want me to go take a look?" Peter asked.

Severus nodded and Peter transformed back into his rat form and scurried through the grass once more. When he returned it was with the news that the rest already suspected, Remus and Charlene had been imprisoned before either of them had had the opportunity to slip upstairs and release Lillian and James.

"The other Sirius is there," Peter explained. "He must have recognised Moony."

"Damn," Sirius muttered. "So he really is the spy."

"Typical Black conceit," Lily muttered. "Severus told you he was the spy, but you couldn't just believe him, could you?"

"As enthralling as the constant bickering between you lot is…" Severus snapped. "We need to figure out the best way to get our friends out of there."

"I say we charge in and stun the lot of them," Sirius said. "We've been taught plenty of defence stuff at Hogwarts. We'll take them by surprise."

"Except your double will no doubt be expecting you to be around somewhere," Severus pointed out impatiently. "We need to be a little more subtle."

"Pity there's no tunnel into the building," Peter muttered. "That would have been perfect."

"What about the windows?" Lily asked. "They don't look that secure."

"Can't we apparate right inside?" Sirius suggested at the same time.

"Too risky." Severus shook his head. "We don't want to arrive with our backs to them and they'll be on their guard now."

"And the windows?" Lily asked again.

"Maybe," Severus nodded. "Perhaps one where they're less likely to see anyone approaching."

"I can go under the cloak," Sirius pointed out.

"I think you'll find that it'll be rather difficult to get in through a window without pulling the cloak off at all," Severus replied. "But the window could work as a distraction."

"While the others go in the front door?"

"No," Severus grinned. "While they go in through the tunnel."

"But there isn't a tunnel," Peter pointed out again. "I checked for the one that exists in our world and in all the ground floor rooms. There's not one there."

"So we build one of our own," Severus replied. "There's a basement in the building that's unguarded. The entrance is off the kitchen. We can get in through the basement and take care of the two in the kitchen. Sirius, you can cause a distraction by trying to get in one of the windows. Peter? Where was Sirius's double?"

"In a room off the kitchen, the one at the far side of the building."

"Right." Severus hesitated and Sirius could see that he was mentally recalling the layout of the building. "Sirius, the third window round the back should be the room next to the one your double is in. Go in that one and make sure that you're caught. Hopefully he'll call a guard through and make it easier for those of us going in through the basement. Peter, you go in as Wormtail and stay hidden as long as you can. You're our secret weapon."

"The other Sirius knows I'm an animagus," Peter pointed out.

"But a rat is easy to hide, they won't know where you're going to spring from."

"I'm only seeing one problem here," Sirius said before pausing meaningfully.

"And if you could quit the dramatics and let us know some time tonight…" Severus snapped.

"Building the tunnel," Sirius smirked. "Going to take a bit of time that, wouldn't you say?"

"Not when it's built with magic," Severus replied with a snort. "The spell is quite simple, the complicated part is keeping the tunnel stable when it's breaking the laws of physics by going to deep, or too close to surface water, stuff like that. But this one shouldn't be a problem."

"And I suppose you know how to do that?" Sirius muttered.

"Why? Don't you?" Severus replied in an equally sarcastic tone.

* * *

Sirius stood outside the window, hidden under the invisibility cloak, waiting for his cue from the others that the tunnel was finished. Finally, he saw Lily wave from the bushes at the far end of the grounds. It was now or never.

Sirius had intended to 'accidentally' bang the window as he climbed inside. It would cause more than enough noise without making him look a complete idiot. Unfortunately instead of climbing in the window, Sirius fell through it and landed in a tangled heap on the floor. He was in that particularly embarrassing position when his double rushed into the room, his wand raised, ready to disarm him.

"I can't say this is a complete surprise," the other Sirius stated coldly. "Though I must admit I expected a little more originality from _you_."

Sirius mumbled under his breath as he stood up and brushed the dust from his robes.

"I suppose you're here for your werewolf?"

"And the others," Sirius replied with a shrug.

"I gave him the chance to leave," the other Sirius explained. "He choose to stay here as a prisoner rather than leave the girls behind. I wonder what choice you will make now you're faced with the same dilemma."

"The same one he made," Sirius snapped. "We're marauders and we don't leave our friends behind."

"Are you sure about that? You and Remus don't belong in this world. You could leave, return home and forget this world even exists. Your Lily would still be free, your Charlene – Charlie you call her right? – won't have been bitten. Your life, pitiful as it is, would go on just as it did before."

"My life isn't pitiful," Sirius snapped.

"Your family despises you, and if the events in your world progress like they have in this one, then sooner or later you're going to have to choose whether or not you stand with them or against them."

"I made that choice when I was eleven years old," Sirius replied. "I made that choice when I sat on the stool in the Great Hall and the Sorting Hat deliberated on where to place me. I chose the house I wanted, not the one that the rest of my family got placed in."

"Doesn't mean you can't change your mind," the other Sirius stated with a sly smile. "I'm a Gryffindor too, remember?"

"You're a disgrace to the house," Sirius spat. From the other room came the sound of a thump, he would have ignored it but his double had heard it as clearly as he had and he turned to hurry from the room. That was his mistake, Sirius thought later. He pulled out his wand and stunned his double, making sure to bind him with invisible ropes so that he wouldn't follow after him. He pushed aside the lingering thought that it was hardly fair to attack when the opponent's back was turned; it was a Slytherin trait to act in such a manner, the trait of a dark wizard.

In the kitchen Severus and Remus's double had overpowered two of the guards who were lying stunned on the floor.

"That looks like Moony's wand," he said as he pointed to the wands on the sideboard. "I guess these others belong to Lillian and Charlene?"

Remus nodded and took Charlene's wand himself. Severus took Lillian's and they each looked around the room to take stock of the situation.

Peter was still in his rat form and he pawed at a nearby door, indicating where the other guard had gone. "I'll take care of that one," Remus said as he quietly opened the door and slipped inside.

Severus nodded and hurried out of the room towards the staircase. "There's one more guard upstairs, let's get the others and get out of here before reinforcements arrive."

Sirius nodded but Severus was already on his way, not wanting to waste time waiting to see if his orders were obeyed.

"Where's Lily?" he called as he hurried up the stairs behind the other boy.

"Slight change of plan. I sent her to meet Dumbledore. I received communication just after you left us that he's apparating into the area at the edge of the village. If we don't get out of here we'll need him to know what's happened so he can get us out."

"Did anyone ever tell you that you plan far too much?" Sirius asked.

"You can never plan too much."

"Now you sound like Moony," Sirius muttered. "And you have no idea how creepy that is."

"I have a fair idea," Severus laughed. "You may not believe it, but this is just as strange for me…maybe even stranger. We've been mates for years and now suddenly there are two of you running around, one who hates me because he's chosen the opposing side in a war, and you who hate me…why do you hate me anyway? Is the me in your world that bad?"

"Depends who you're asking," Sirius admitted. "Moony seems to think he's all right, and Lily was friends with him until last summer."

"I guess it doesn't really matter. Quiet now, the others are being held on the next floor."

"There's only one guard."

"Sometimes one is all it takes."

Sirius shrugged and they slowed their pace as they crept up the final staircase and peered round the corner.

Thankfully the cries of the still screeching Lillian drowned out the sounds of their approach.

The guard had his back to them and Severus, his wand already raised, crept up on the man, his footsteps as light as a cats. As they drew nearer he could hear not only Lillian but also Charlene, who was attempting to calm the other girl down.

Severus turned to him and nodded to the two doors on either side of the hallway. Sirius hoped that there were no strong spells on the doors, just sturdy muggle locks that would be easily opened.

Then there was no more time to think, Severus waited until the guard turned to face him before stunning him. He fell to the ground with a thump and Sirius felt another guilty twinge at the way he had stunned his double. He pushed the feeling aside and with a quick spell, opened the door to the room where Remus was being held. He grinned at the other boy and held out his arms to him. Unfortunately the invisible James beat Moony to it and Sirius was startled to find himself being embraced by the invisible man who was mumbling something that he couldn't make out beneath the fabric of the cloak.

From the corner of his eye he could see Lillian had thrown herself at Severus and was showering him with kisses. Charlene was looking away in embarrassment. Sirius didn't blame her, he was feeling rather queasy at the sight himself.

"Your Remus is downstairs keeping an eye on the other guards with Wormtail," Sirius told her and she hurried off with a look of relief.

Sirius tried to disengage himself from his best friend without a great deal of success. "Prongs, do you mind?"

"Not at all," James replied as he stood back and removed the cloak. "I can't believe you got dog-napped. We thought we'd never see you again."

"You know you can't get rid of me that easily," Sirius grinned. "Now if you don't mind I'd like to follow Snape's example and snog my boyfriend who I'm sure has missed me terribly during this trying time."

Remus rolled his eyes and snorted with laughter. "Sure Padfoot, the last hour has been just torturous without your company."

"Well of course it has!"

"Oh let's get out of here," Remus ordered as he steered the other boys back towards the stairs. "I don't suppose you picked up our wands?"

"Of course," Sirius said as he pulled the wand from his robes and passed it to Remus. "I'm not completely useless."

"Never said you were," Remus replied. "Though you really should make an effort to move it before the guard comes round."

"He'll be out for at least an hour," Severus declared as he tugged Lillian towards the stairs.

"Impressive," Sirius replied, and Remus's jaw dropped at the unexpected and unprecedented event of Sirius Black complimenting Severus Snape.

They hurried out of the building, through the tunnel, Severus refilling it behind them to ensure that they weren't followed.

They soon reached the open air at the edge of the Forbidden Forest where Lily was waiting for them with Albus Dumbledore.

"I see there was no need for my anxiety," Dumbledore said with a smile when he saw that everyone was safe and sound. "How many are there in the house?"

"Five, including Black," Severus replied.

"I suspected as much," Dumbledore said sadly. "I take it this is the one from the other world?"

Sirius nodded and shifted from one foot to the other under the assessing gaze of the headmaster, although in this case it was the former headmaster.

Dumbledore stared at him for several minutes before turning back to Severus. "The Aurors are on their way."

"They're already here," a voice announced from behind them.

"Alastor, welcome," Dumbledore greeted the other man. "The house over there is the one you need." He pointed towards the building. "Five wizards, one underage."

"The one you suspected?"

"I'm afraid so."

"We'll take them in and call the Wizengamot to deal with them. Have your witnesses ready by morning." Alastor barked out his orders to his men and strode from the trees.

"Er…we won't be needed as witnesses, will we?" James asked. "Only we shouldn't even be here."

"I think that we have enough witnesses without the assistance of our visitors," Dumbledore replied with a smile. "I imagine that my counterpart has already noticed your absence."

"I'm hoping not," Sirius muttered. "We're never going to get out of detention at this rate."

Dumbledore chuckled and pulled out his wand. "Well as soon as I've been reinstated I will be contacting your own headmaster and I'll be sure to explain to him what a help you've all been. I'll certainly be in touch sooner or later as I would still like his help in locating the famous Salazar Slytherin spell book, which may help our cause. But that's beside the point, I'll be sure to recommend that he doesn't treat you too harshly for what I suspect is only the latest in a long line of transgressions. Now I imagine that you would like to return home?"

"Could you open the portal for us?" Lily asked. "I mean, without anyone on the other side to complete the spell?"

"Of course young lady," Dumbledore replied. "Ever since the portal opened earlier this year I've been studying the phenomenon and can now open the portals alone. The tricky part is to make sure that the world on the other side is the one that we're looking for without someone else to bridge the gap."

"You mean there's more than one?" James asked curiously.

"Oh definitely," Dumbledore replied. "An infinite number would be my guess. Each world is different from the others in some way. It's really rather fascinating."

Sirius felt his eyes glazing over and it was only when the portal was fully open that he realised Prongs was poking him in the back to get him moving.

"Come on Padfoot, let's go home," Remus said before turning to Dumbledore. "Thank you headmaster."

"My pleasure," Dumbledore replied. "And if you should ever need the help of this world, you know we will be happy to return the favour."

Remus nodded seriously before turning back to the face the others one last time.

"Thanks…Moony," his double said in a gruff voice and Remus smiled.

"You take care of Charlie," Remus told him as he smiled at his fellow werewolf.

His double nodded seriously and stuck out his hand. "Good luck with your own war," he said and the two Remuses shook hands.

Charlene was less stiff and formal in her goodbyes, she pulled Remus into a hug and begged him to take care of himself during the full moons. He promised that he would and told her to do likewise. "They'll find a cure for us one day," he added. "I just know it." Charlene nodded but didn't look too hopeful. He couldn't blame her, he wasn't particularly hopeful himself.

Lily and the rest of the marauders took it in turns to shake hands with Severus, albeit the latter were somewhat reluctant.

Sirius even managed to summon the will to say goodbye to Lillian. "I forgive you for kidnapping me," he told her with a forced smile.

"Huh?" she replied with a blank look on her face.

"Well, dog-napping if you like," Sirius said with a grin.

"Huh?"

"Just show her Padfoot," Moony sighed. "We'll be here all night if you don't." Sirius shrugged and transformed himself into Padfoot, casting a guilty glance up at Lillian who looked rather stunned.

Once he was sure that she'd got the message he transformed back and gave a guilty shrug.

"You…you…you're…" Lillian stammered.

"Padfoot," Sirius supplied.

"But you spent the night in the girls' dorm without telling anyone!" Lillian screeched.

"I didn't look," Sirius exclaimed.

"That's not the point," Lillian shouted. "You…you…"

"Maybe you'd better go," Severus suggested with a smirk. "Our Lillian doesn't let her temper show as often as your Lily but when she lets loose you don't want to be in the front line."

Sirius nodded quickly as he backed away.

"Are you all ready now?" Dumbledore asked. "You have everything you came with and nothing else?"

"This is what we brought with us," Sirius lied as he gestured to the bag of tricks from Hogsmeade.

"Are you sure?" Dumbledore asked doubtfully.

"It's what they brought through with them," Remus's double confirmed with a hidden wink at the others.

"Then farewell," Dumbledore said as he waved the five students towards the portal.

"Well Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, shall we depart?" Lily asked.

"Ladies first," James declared with a sweeping bow. Lily rolled her eyes but let him play the gentleman as she stepped through the portal before him. He followed right after her with Wormtail.

Sirius turned to Remus. "So who goes first out of the two of us?" he asked with a smirk.

"You of course," Remus replied with a smirk of his own.

"You saying I'm the girl in this relationship?"

"No Sirius, I just like checking you out from this angle," Remus replied.

Sirius laughed as he stepped through the portal. Remus grinned as he made the most of the view and followed after him. He didn't know about the others but he was certainly ready to go home.

The End

* * *

A/N: I am not marking this story as complete just yet as I may add a short epilogue to it. I am undecided as yet as to whether to or not to do so, as the epilogue (if I post it) will be setting up the start of another sequel. The only thing is that I am not sure if I am going to write or post another sequel. The reason is that some time ago I was criticised for a story not being original, and being just like hundreds of others here. So now I try to take care to make sure that my stories have some element of originality to them. The idea I have for the sequel is less original than the rest of this series and so I am hesitating. Without doing a search on this site I am sure that the idea I have has been done before. What I will probably do is see just how many stories with that particular plotline are out there before I make my final decision on this one. If I decide against it I will just mark this one as complete at a later date. If you see an epilogue has been added then it means there is a sequel started, or on the way very soon.

Thanks as always to everyone who has been reading, and most especially to those who have taken the time to leave comments.


	12. Epilogue

Epilogue

Remus was the final member of the party to step through the portal and no sooner had he done so the doorway between the worlds closed once more.

"Guess we're walking back to Hogwarts?" Peter grumbled.

"At least it's not as cold as it was when we left," James commented. "Quite mild really."

Remus nodded that he too had noticed the improvement in the normally winter weather. "Looks like it's later at night too." He pointed up at the moon and a second later did a double take. "What the…?"

"What is it?" Lily asked with a frown of concern.

"The moon's wrong," Remus whispered.

"Are you sure?" James asked as he too looked towards the heavens where the moon had just disappeared behind a cloud.

"I'm sure." Remus shivered as he waited for the clouds to pass by and reveal the truth of his words to the others.

"Does that mean what I think it means?" Peter asked.

"It means we're not home," Sirius stated.

"But it was Dumbledore who did the spell, he knew what he was doing, didn't he?" James sounded half worried and half panicked as he looked around the familiar street, searching for proof that Remus was somehow mistaken.

Each of them were soon following his example. It was Peter who found what they were looking for first.

"Um, guys, you better take a look at this!" Peter called where he stood next to the village notice board.

"What is it?" Sirius asked. "Is Hogsmeade finally going to get a band to come play here or something?"

Peter shook his head and pointed at the poster.

**WANTED**

**SIRIUS BLACK**

Sirius let out an involuntary squeak at the sight of his name as James read aloud the small print on the poster that revealed that Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban Prison and was at large in the country.

"It's not you Padfoot," Remus assured him quietly as he gestured to the picture of the wizard. "The one they're looking for looks about five years older than you. Maybe it's a relative or something?"

"Does it look like a ruddy relative?" Sirius hissed as he jabbed at the poster, much to the consternation of the raving wizard pictured on it. "It's me! You think I can't tell me from some other random member of the family?"

"It's not you," Remus repeated. "We've come to the wrong place, the wrong world. This isn't you!"

"Remus is right," Peter said. "Look at this here." He pointed to another poster on the board, this one advertising a meeting of the local residents to petition against the recent arrival of dementors in the area.

"Dementors?" Sirius gasped. "No prizes for guessing who they're after."

"I didn't mean the bit about the dementors," Peter replied. "I meant the date. Look at it."

"1993," Remus read. "1993?"

"I guess Sirius was in Azkaban a while," Peter commented, a little unnecessarily.

"What does it matter?" cried Sirius as he shook his head, his eyes still riveted to the poster. "It looks like the Sirius in this world is just as evil as the last one, so it's only a matter of time before the dementors are really after me. I'm sure I deserve it."

"If only for the haircut alone," James snickered.

"My hair? What's wrong with my hair?" Sirius yelled, his hands flying up to his head as though checking he still had some.

"James this is hardly the time to start winding him up," Remus chided. "We need to get to Hogwarts and find Dumbledore." He then turned his attention back to Sirius. "Come on mate, we're going to get home and you can forget all about this. We just need to get moving quickly before the dementors come."

Unfortunately Sirius wasn't listening and nothing Remus said was calming him down.

They were in serious trouble, and Remus only hoped that this world even had a Dumbledore. 1993 was a long time in the future and they didn't know whether Dumbledore was even alive.

* * *

A/N: As you can see the next story in this series is not startlingly original, though I think I have picked one of the less frequently used years. The sequel will (hopefully) have at least a few unique twists in it, even if it will be (in effect) yet another time travel story.


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